Beach vs. Norcross (5-A Finals)

4SHOT Sports

2006 Georgia State Championships
Beach vs. Norcross (5-A Finals)
By Jabari "Klapp" Glapion
Mar 4, 2006, 05:33 EST

Blue Devils win 5-A Title in a yawner

And they said the Superbowl was sleeper

Gwinnett Arena – Duluth, GA

Meeks heads off to the Bluegrass State with a championship.

With the Wheeler Wildcats out of the picture, the Norcross Blue Devils figures to be sitting pretty going into the Class 5-A championship game. Their opponent, however, is the same opponent that sent Wheeler packing. Now the questions are: Will the Beach Bulldogs pull off another major upset to take home a title or will the Blue Devils do as most suspect and walk away with a championship of their own. Let’s see….

The Beach Bulldogs opened the game with a three-pointer from deep by sophomore James Fields. From that point on, the 1^st period would be all Norcross. Senior and Kentucky signee, Jodie Meeks took over early, at some points even waiving off the point man, Brenton Butler.

Meeks had no qualms with taking the ball directly down the middle of the lane to hit a nice up and under layup or just to get the line. Junior Gani Lawal manned the inside with ease, while Butler ran the offense.

The 1^st period would end with the second three-pointer and basket of the period for Beach. And anyone that knows basketball knows two shots per period just will not cut it.

Meeks continued to be the man of the hour in the 2^nd period, Butler and Lawal continued to play their roles, and Beach continued to struggle. Surprisingly, the Bulldogs were only down 10 at the half, 26-16. Beach seemed to get no fluidity on offense. The Bulldogs were unable to get inside the paint or even grab an offensive rebound. Beach even had difficulty displaying a well ran play. The three-ball was keeping Beach in the game, but the three-ball was slowly pushing the Bulldogs out of it as well.

To the Bulldogs and Coach Frank Williams credit, Beach came out of halftime with a totally different mindset. Now, Fields and senior Greg Thomas were taking the ball to the hole and at least trying to draw contact. This strategy proved to be just as unsuccessful as the one displayed in the first half.

After the three-pointer to open the game, it would be all downhill for Beach. Norcross’ fan’s packed Gwinnett Arena and were just as big a nuisance for the Bulldogs as the Blue Devils were on the court.

Norcross went on to defeat Beach. A basketball enthusiast can’t help but think about the “what if’s” but right now, the “what if’s” don’t exist. What does exist is a Class 5-A state title for the Norcross Blue Devils.

Final Score: Norcross 66 – Beach 49

Scoring Recap

Norcross:

Jodie Meeks had a game high 32 points with 5 rebounds. Gani Lawal finished with 18 points and 14 rebounds, while Butler followed up with 10 points and 8 boards.

Beach:

James Fields had a team high 15 points along with 4 boards. Whitman Keith had 9 points and 4 rebounds and Shannon Smith finished with 8 points and 2 rebounds.