BASKETBALL: Dublin boys beat Bleckley to break 13-game region skid as both teams advance in region tourney

Dublin’s boys were winless in the 13 region games they played during the regular season. 

Late breakdowns and missed opportunities were a big reason that the close ones – seven of those decided by a single-digit margin and two in overtime – got away despite leads either through the half, or deeper in games that were a better fourth quarter away from going the other direction. 

If there was a win to be had, it was Monday night or never as the Irish fought to keep their season alive in the opening round of the region 2-High A tournament. And they were finally able to close one out as they knocked off No. 7 seed Bleckley County, 47-41. 

What did it take? 

“Just playing for 32 minutes,” Dublin head coach Carlos Hope said. “We’ve been there all year long. I know it’s a surprise to everybody else, here. But we felt like we could’ve been that team, if you look at our record of one and two and three possession losses. Tonight, we hit free throws, we got stops, we made timely baskets. So I’m just super proud of our guys.” 

A glamorous performance, it was not. 

But unlike in the loss of five in Cochran that went down as another of the winnable games above, the Irish execution was superior, and their mistakes a bit less costly, as many of the things that needed to come together at the right time late, finally did. 

Boogie McRae and Ar’Dreakius Taylor co-led the scoring with 11 points apiece, and JaKarian Jones and QuanTavis Lovett (whose double-double included an impressive 24 rebounds) contributed nine each to the balanced offensive effort. 

Dublin shooters converted at 39 percent from the field, were 6-of-15 from 3 and finished 7-of-15 at the free throw line, while the offense altogether kept the turnover count on the low side (most of its wayward passes coming, ironically, on more laid-back possessions that were attempting to stall time). 

But defense was the biggest key, enabling the Irish (5-20, 1-13 region) to hold Bleckley County without a field goal for the entire last four minutes. 

“We stayed within our gameplan,” Hope said. “Coach (Garrett) Collins over there is a heck of a guy, offensively, but we stayed sound and we communicated. Quan Lovett in the middle anchoring helps out too.” 

Dublin was the visitor in its own gym, as a coincidence of seeding on a corresponding line in the bracket to its girls, who were predetermined hosts of this doubleheader at No. 7, and easy winners by a final of 83-19 in the first half of Monday night’s proceedings on the Jaroy Stuckey Court. 

Keep tabs on all of this week’s 2-High A and 4-AAA tourney with nightly updates on scores and brackets at The Courier Herald’s Region Tournament Central.

Despite getting to keep their usual locker room, the Irish boys had to give up the home bench and side of the scoreboard they were used to in a matchup against the higher-seeded Royals. 

Similar to other region matchups they’d led at the half, an advantage of a couple possessions at halftime did ultimately dissipate, and the lead traded hands several times in the back-and-forth exchanges that into the fourth. 

But Dublin had some consistent answers, and never allowed the Royals to take a lead bigger than two. 

Bleckley’s Patrick Roberts connected from 3 to cut a six-point Irish edge in half and make the score 42-39 with a little above four minutes to go. 

The Royals would proceed to trim the number down to one on separate free throws, as the two teams spent the next three minutes mostly spinning their wheels on offense. 

Neither could seem to land a key punch until Dublin finally took hold of an opportunity on a second chance after working the clock down to well inside a minute coming out of a timeout. 

It wasn’t a quality shot, as McRae hoisted a deep 3 while falling away at the end of the timer and missed a bit wide, but a fortunate kick off the rim came right to a wide open Kam Stanley as he crashed from the right, and his easy follow put Dublin up 44-41. 

Bleckley came up empty on a crunch-time possession, and Lovett secured a key board with under 20 seconds to play that forced Royals to foul. And from there it was a matter of making your free throws.

McRae converted two to make it a two-basket game, and the Irish came up with a pivotal defensive play, tipping a pass to cause an unfortunate Bleckley bounce, as the ricochet from a teammate caught a piece of Marty Beck while his foot was out of bounds. 

From there, time and one added point from a McRae free throw, closed the book on the Royals’ chances. 

The first half contained nothing flashy for either team, but Dublin ground out a few possession lead early in the second quarter, and held onto it through the last 90 seconds before halftime, which was one of the most exciting stretches of the game. 

McRae sunk a 3-pointer early in the sequence to stretch the Irish lead to 20-13. Then Dublin, after a stop, tried to throw the ball around and run some clock. But a pass back to the top got jumped for an easy lay-in by Jason McNulty, and a possession later, he knocked down a 3 to trim the Irish lead to 20-18. 

But the momentum swung back on Dublin’s last possession as Chris Dixon got a runner to go with seconds left to make it a 22-18 lead. 

The Irish picked up where they left off in the third, rattling off some early baskets to stay in front by a decent number. But Bleckley would finally catch them with a score by McNulty for their first lead since the early minutes, 31-30, with two to go in the third. 

Dublin 3-pointers by McRae and Ian Wright, and an old-fashioned triple by Jones, kept the Irish in a good spot from there. 

They’ll go on to battle the No. 6 seed Central Macon (at Macon’s Academy for Classical Education) Tuesday night, and try to do the same thing over again, though this time with some much-needed momentum when it matters. 

The Chargers are another of the teams they were close to finding a way to beat in the regular season, with a late charge that plateaued in overtime after Dixon’s buzzer-beating 3 tied things up at the end of regulation. 

With a distant GHSA postseason rating of 62nd, winning the last two of the three in a row that would be required to advance to the region semifinals, thereby clinching an automatic spot, is pretty much Dublin’s only hope of reaching the state playoffs. After finding a way to win the first, its biggest challenge will now be holding up to the grind of multiple games in consecutive days that it takes to make a run.

“We’ve got to go home and get some rest,” Hope said. “We’re blessed that we don’t have school tomorrow, so we can sleep in. But it’s gonna take the same grit, and again, you can’t win unless you’re there. So we’re there, so we feel good with our chances tomorrow.” 

The Dublin girls (12-14, 6-8 region) breezed their way past the Lady Warriors with thanks to several in its lineup who put together some unreal stat lines. 

Zoey Bell led scorers with 30. Keasia Jackson did one better than the number in rebounds, with 31 (of the team’s total 50), and 23 points. Khalil Maddox added 15 points, and six of the team’s 20 steals. 

The Lady Irish scored Jefferson County’s entire game total in a 19-point first quarter, and led 38-10 at the half before blowing things completely open with almost 50 in the only 14 remaining minutes. 

They’ll accompany the Dublin boys to Macon Tuesday night for a rematch of a 21-point loss to ACE (the No. 6 seed) from back in December.