Raiders fall to Brookwood in region semis
Published 1:10 pm Wednesday, February 14, 2024
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AMERICUS – The Southland Academy Raiders (SAR) came into their Region 3-AAA semifinal game against Brookwood (BKW) with hopes of beating the Warriors for the first time this year and securing a spot in the region final. Unfortunately for the Raiders, however, though they got to a great start, they awoke a “sleeping giant”, as the Warriors went on a 7-2 run in the second quarter and took total control of the game from then on out on their way to a 65-46 win over the Raiders Tuesday night at the GSW Storm Dome.
“You’ve got to give it up to Brookwood. They’re a pretty good team,” SAR Head Coach Kevin Douglas said. “We knew going in that we had to do everything right and we did that first quarter, but then we fell off in the second quarter. I think we only scored four points. From that point on, it was us not doing the things that we needed to do to at least stay in the ball game at the end of the ball game. I got to give it to my guys. They fought. They were tired. This court is a lot bigger. The atmosphere was great. I definitely have to give it up to Raider Nation for coming out and supporting us and helping us try to get the win. Brookwood is a good team. We’ve got another one on Thursday. We’ll come in here and try to finish this thing out on Thursday.”
The Raiders will take on Tiftarea Academy in the third place game on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. BKW will take on Deerfield-Windsor in the Region 3-AAA championship game on Thursday at 8:30 p.m.
Perry Usher led the Raiders in scoring with 20 points and Jamarcus Walker scored 12 in the losing cause.
The Raiders jumped out to a 9-2 lead in the first quarter mainly on the strength of two three-pointers by Usher and a breakaway layup by Walker.
As the first quarter continued, Usher continued to heat up from inside and outside the arc and scored a total of 12 points in the quarter. This enabled SAR to jump out to a 19-9 lead by the quarter’s end.
However, early in the second quarter, the Warriors went on a 7-2 run and capped it off with a breakaway layup by Jordan Jean. As the first half continued, the Raiders tried to be patient on offense and work for the good shot, but the BKW defense began to force turnovers and the Warriors went on another run, taking a 22-21 lead on two free throws by Jean. In the waning minutes of the first half, the Raiders continued to struggle and by halftime, they trailed the Warriors 28-23.
Over the first few minutes of the third quarter, the Raiders continued to be patient on offense and traded baskets with the Warriors, but BKW would take a 38-30 lead on a three-pointer by Jean late in the third quarter. This was the beginning of a 6-4 run by the Warriors to close out the third quarter. With one more quarter to play, the Raiders were trailing 44-34.
The Warriors scored five unanswered points to start the fourth quarter and capped off that run with a three-pointer by Will Stevens. This prompted Douglas to call a timeout so that his team could regroup. However, the Raiders could not stop the Warriors and would go on to lose to BKW by the score of 65-46.
Jean led the Warriors in scoring with 18 points and both Levi Williams and Walker Jackson each poured in 13 in the winning cause.