2006 Georgia State Championships
The Streak is over!!!
“Warriors” man-up to knockoff Randolph-Clay
The Macon Coliseum – Macon, GA
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| Jarvis Crittenton tried to bring the house down withthis slam. |
Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy’s Jarvis Crittenton has some “DO - Double GG” in every part of his game and on Wednesday night he transferred some of that over to his teammates as they jumped up and bit the “Big DOGGG’s” known as Randolph-Clay, knocking the undefeated defending 2-time Class A champions out of the box with a gutsy 69-65 upset win in the Class A Semi-Final game at the Macon Coliseum in Macon, GA.
The game started out in usual Randolph-Clay style as they jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead behind the board play of 6-5 Sr.- Rashaad Lewis (a pre-season 4SHOT Hoops top 10 selection). Meanwhile Lewis’s AAU Atlanta Celtics teammate, SACA’s McDonald’s All-American game selectee 6-5 Sr.-Javaris Crittenton (4SHOT Hoops pre-season No.1 ranked player) got off to a slow start but his teammates 5-11 Jr.-Eric Watts (now beeping on the 4SHOT Hoops radar), 6-5 Sr.-Danny Friends (4SHOT Hoops pre-season top 50 selection) and 6-5 Jr.-Omarr Prewitt (now beeping on the 4SHOT Hoops radar) picked up the slack as the “Warriors” cut into the lead.
Lewis finished off a big 1st quarter with a slam to give the “Red Devils” a 16-10 lead.
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| R-C's Rashaad Lewis takes 1 of his game high 12 rebounds. |
Crittenton started finding a little groove in the 2nd quarter drilling a three-pointer just to let the “Red Devils” know he was still in the house and 6-5 Jr.-Jahaziel Howard (a 4SHOT Hoops pre-season top 50 selection and younger brother of Orlando Magic’s Dwight Howard) also started to feel his way into the game with a three-pointer of his own but the “Warriors” couldn’t cut into the lead because of some bad shot selections and some costly turnovers.
Meanwhile Lewis continued to kill SACA with his inside board play adding 8 more points and 3 more rebounds to his lofty total. Teammate 6-1 Sr.-Martavious Allen (a 4SHOT Hoops pre-season Top 20 selection) finally got going ripping down 5 rebounds as Randolph-Clay built up a 31-20 halftime lead.
SACA Head Coach Courtney Brooks had to know that despite the 11 point deficit that his “Warriors” were killing themselves by making some bad decisions, so he made some adjustments at the half and the “Warriors” responded coming out in the 3rd quarter with a whole different frame of mind as they opened up the 3rd quarter with a three-pointer from Watts and a jumper from Howard to quickly cut the lead to 6 points.
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| There is nothing friendly about the slam by SACA's Danny Friend Jr. |
Randolph-Clay Head Coach Joe Williams squad hasn’t gone 90 games without a loss for no reason as they responded with a pair of sweet hoops from 5-6 So.-DeAndre Johnson.(now beeping on the 4SHOT Hoops radar).
The teams continued to go battle each other back and forth. With 2:32 left in the quarter Friend threw down a dunk to help keep the “Warriors” within striking distance.
Usually by this time of the game the “Red Devils” have their opponents gasping for air but as SACA continued to hang tough you could just sense on the faces of the “Red Devils” players, fans and coaches that they knew that this wasn’t the same group of “Warriors” they blew away in last year’s championship game because they started to tighten up a little themselves making some untimely turnovers that SACA capitalized on.
A Crittenton three-pointer and a tough put back by Prewitt closed the gap to 48-45 at the end of the 3rd quarter.
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| R-C's DeAndre Ellington hangs in the air as he goes to the whole for tow. |
With Crittenton directing the troops in the 4th quarter the “Warriors” charged up Randolph Mountain and attacked the “Red Devils” at their own game. With 2:56 to play Crittenton stuck a short jumper to give SACA a 57-55 lead as the “Warriors” bench and fans went wild.
Lewis went back to work scoring 2 tough baskets inside to tie the game at 59-59 with 1:43 to play. My hat is off to the “Warriors” Omarr Prewitt, at 6-5 he’s not an outstanding leaper and doesn’t possess great athletic ability but he has heart and wants to be a “Baller”, oh and he’s got some of that “DO - Double GG” in him; he was a big factor battling Lewis inside as he scored on a short hook to tie the game after the “Red Devils” took the lead.
With 1:34 left in the game Watts drilled a huge three-pointer to give SACA a 62-59 lead. Crittenton who missed 2 earlier free-throws was fouled and calmly stepped to the line and drilled both shots to up their lead to 64-59 with 1:07 on the clock.
Randolph-Clay fought back getting a basket from Lewis. They got the ball back with a chance to tie the game with a three-pointer but Watts came up with a big-time steal for the “Warriors” and Crittenton knocked down 2 more free-throws as the Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy “Warriors” in the 4th straight Final Four appearance knock off the states 2-time Class A Champions from Randolph-Clay 69-65 to advance to their 4th straight Class A Championship Game against there regional rivals from Whitefield Academy.
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| Omarr Prewitt #45 had 12 big rebounds, Jahaziel Howard #24 scored 13pts and Eric Watts #20 added 15pts and this big steal atthe end of the game for the Warriors. |
"To Head Coach Joe Williams and all of the Randolph-Clay players who contributed to the 90 game winning streak, what you guys did was truly remarkable and may not be duplicated again .... Congratulations on a job well done! "
Scoring Recap
Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy:
Jarvis Crittenton scored a game high 27 points (11 points on free-throws) to pace the “Warriors”. Eric Watts finished with 15 points (4 three-points), Jahaziel Howard had 13 points and 9 rebounds, Omarr Prewitt had 8 points and pulled down 12 boards and Danny Friend chipped in with 6 points.
Randolph-Clay:
Rashaad Lewis finished with a “Duce”, scoring 26 points and grabbing a game high 13 rebounds for the “Red Devils”. DeAndre Johnson finished with 15 points and several sweet assists and Dexter Ellington added 14 points.
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