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AMERICUS – Americus-Sumter senior guard Trae Brown scored 18 points and junior small forward Keldrick Flemming chipped in 11 to lead the 6-0 Panthers to a 57-44 victory over Dougherty Comprehensive High School (DCHS) on Saturday, December 7, at Americus-Sumter High School.

With the win over the Trojans, the Panthers sweep the season series against DCHS and are now 3-0 in Region 1-AAAA play.

“The guys came out very intense. We had some guys that weren’t here earlier that helped us tonight and we had some young guys step up,” ASHS head coach Johnny Genwright said. “We came back in the second half and I told them not to let the pressure down. We kept the pressure up. The whole thing that I liked was that we played as a team.”

In the last meeting between these two teams in Albany on Tuesday, November 26, the Panthers scored 10 unanswered points to beat the Trojans 60-56.

The Panthers jumped out to a 22-13 in the first half and then increased their lead to 12 on a three-pointer by Brown. At that point, the Trojans went on a 5-0 run before Brown hit another three-pointer to keep the double-digit lead for ASHS at 28-18. The Panthers then closed out the first half by scoring four unanswered points to take a 32-18 lead into the locker room.

Brown scored 14 of his 18 points in the first half, including two three-pointers.

The Panthers had several chances to score points early in the second half. They were able to get several transition run outs (fast breaks) early on in the third quarter, but missed several layups and put backs. ASHS did not score a point in the third quarter until the six-minute mark. Both teams traded baskets over the next two minutes until Flemming scored a layup to give the Panthers a 38-26 lead. This was the beginning of a 6-0 run by ASHS, which was halted by a three-pointer from Roderick Jones of DCHS. Neither team could score a point in the last minute of the third quarter and the Panthers went into the final quarter leading 42-29.

Both teams struggled to score during the first two minutes of the fourth quarter. Neither team could get a basket until the Panthers scored on a layup with less then six minutes remaining. With 4:48 to go, Melton McCoy drove to the basket and was fouled. McCoy made one of two foul shots to give the Panthers a 45-31 lead. With 3:59 to go, the Trojans had a chance to cut into the ASHS lead when Lamar Hall was fouled. However, Hall could only make one of the two free throws.

With a little over three minutes to play, the Trojans got back-to-back steals and scored four straight points to cut the Panthers’ lead to 48-38. However, Le’Shanna Ross gave ASHS a 12-point lead on a layup.
The Panthers’ tight man-to-man defense made it difficult for the Trojans to get off good shots. Thus, DCHS was unable to make a serious last-minute run and the Panthers went on to win 57-44.

For the Trojans (2-5), Jones was their scoring leader with 17 points.

ASHS will now prepare for another Region 1-AAAA contest when they host Northside (Columbus) on Tuesday, December 10, at 7:30 p.m.