Westlake vs. Dunwoody (3A Finals)

4SHOT Sports

2006 Georgia State Championships
Westlake vs. Dunwoody (3A Finals)
By Jabari "Klapp" Glapion
Mar 8, 2006, 03:08 EST

Dunwoody stakes claim to Class 3-A Title....Again

Lions streak end in championship loss

The Macon Coliseum – Macon, GA

The Dunwoody Wildcats have faced the Westlake Lions before, twice in fact. Even more disturbing for the Wildcats, both times the Lions were victorious. This time, Dunwoody had all the more reason for revenge. This time, a title was at stake.

Senior An'juan Wilderness unlocked the cage early and his Wildcats followed. Wilderness scored nine straight points to push Dunwoody out to an early 11-4 lead in the first period. The Wildcat backcourt of Kierre Jordan, Wesley Mincey, and Zac Swansey kept up a frantic pace that made matters worse for the Lions.

Early foul trouble for the Westlake big man Jerome Burney, along with poor shooting from his counterparts didn’t help either. Dunwoody was able to end 1^st period play with a comfortable 13 point lead, but the Lions aren’t undefeated for nothing.

Westlake opened the 2^nd period five straight points and looked to tighten things up, but that turned out to be the Lions’ only bright spot of the first half. With Burney on the bench for the entire 2^nd period, guard A.J. Johnson tried to keep the Lions afloat. But Dunwoody did not let up. Despite sloppy in the period, the Wildcats were able to hold off the Lions to end the first half with a 32-22 lead.

The second half seemed a little brighter for the Lions. With the help of some scrappy defense and an intense two-handed dunk down the lane by forward/quarterback Cameron Newton, Westlake was able to cut the Wildcat lead to two. But sophomore Pierre Jordan put a quick end to the Lion run with a deep three to ignite a 7-0 Wildcat run. After each team had their spurts and the smoke cleared, Lions were only down by six with one more period to go, 50-44. Hold them fours up!!

The Lions scratched and clawed in 4^th period action but could not overcome the 9-1 run that put Dunwoody out of reach, even though poor free throw shooting late by the Wildcats kept Westlake in it until the end. That and poor decision making by the Wildcat backcourt as time ticked away made things a lot more interesting than they should have been.

Unfortunately, the Lions’ season ended on a sour note. A 32 game winning was snapped and a championship was lost, all in the same night.

Dunwoody was just too much on this night, from the opening tip to the final buzzer. In a postseason of upsets, it’s pretty hard to call this one. Are you the champ until someone dethrones you? Or should an undefeated season constitute a state title? To Dunwoody, the answer was clear. Undefeated, Schmundefeated.

Final Score: Dunwoody 79 – Westlake 72

Scoring Recap

Dunwoody:

An’juan Wilderness had a game high 27 points along with 6 rebounds. Zac Swansey tallied 18 points while Kierre Jordan finished with 14.

Westlake:

A.J. Johnson led the Lions with 16 points. Patrick Hardy finished with 15 points and Cameron Newton ended the night with a solid 11 points and 9 rebounds.