BASKETBALL: East Laurens splits pair of region games vs. ACE, at Southwest

Once the East Laurens’ boys basketball team takes the floor, it’s wise to stay glued to your seat. 

If you step away to visit the restroom or concession stand, or even glance down at your phone for a few seconds, you’re liable to miss an amazing play, if not several in a row. 

Highlights frequent, and also spontaneous, have been the norm early this season for the Falcons, and their pair of Division 1-bound superstars Rashund Washington Jr. and Ty Snead, who helped the team put on another show in the winning half of a home split Wednesday night with ACE Charter. 

The East boys dominated from the first possession on their way to a fourth win by the one-sided final of 90-32. The Lady Falcons came from behind late to force a close finish, but couldn’t get over the hump in the final moments as ACE hung on to win the night’s low-scoring opener, 43-41. 

The games were both a bounce back, and a setback, for the teams after results in the reverse the night before in region 2-High A battles at Southwest Macon, where the girls rolled to a 63-44 victory while the boys suffered their first loss to the unbeaten Patriots, 76-71. 

Next up for the Falcons is a Saturday visit to Savannah’s Calvary Day, for a rematch of two exciting season openers that both went for the Eastside in wire finishes last month. 

The Falcon boys (4-1, 2-1 region 2-High A) were nowhere close to midseason form. But dang if they weren’t entertaining to watch as they dismantled an overmatched ACE squad Wednesday night in a dominating effort that their superior quickness and length made look too easy. 

The rate of turnovers, quality of shot selection and frequency of misses on lobs to the high flyers that didn’t sync up might have been problematic in a closer game. But their performance, while sloppy, was still some can’t-miss basketball marked by the usual rate of eye-popping plays. And anybody who’s seen one of East’s five games so far knows how suddenly one can unfold. 

Hardly five minutes had come off the clock before Washington and Snead had already seen three or four combined slam dunk opportunities on fast-breaks from turnovers the Falcons were producing at a rate to rival Arby’s. Both punched one each in the first quarter, and Washington lined up a few more before winding up to connect on his second with the right hand for the first of two unanswered buckets that contributed to a 20-6 Falcon lead at the end of the first quarter. 

A third, using a self-alley off the backboard on a transition run in the third quarter, polished off his personal highlight reel in the game. 

Jaylon Davis was the Gryphons’ only player with the chops to hold his own against the Falcons at any position. And the sophomore gave ACE a rebounding presence inside that created some second chance opportunities for most of its offense. But half-court sets, when the Gryphons could get them set up, rarely yielded open looks without East Laurens hands obstructing view of the basket. 

The Falcons plodded their way through a slow-ish second quarter, and led 36-11 by halftime before things really opened up in the third. Kemo Mitchell and Bryson Hazley both found bottom on 3-point attempts that went along with more transition play, and some scores off of good old-fashioned cuts to the basket to add 32 to the home total, and cut the fourth to just six minutes in length. 

The East Laurens girls (3-2, 1-2 region), whose core of players from last year’s region runner-up and state quarterfinal team returned fully intact this season, have shown some impressive strengths through five games. 

It all begins with an athletic, experienced backcourt whose twin guards Brenda and McKayela Tanner are fourth-year starters, both with alert hands and ability to quickly get balls to the basket off the dribble. An area of most noticeable improvement from last year to this one has come in the front court, where junior Deanna Lowther and senior Jayla Givens have both gotten stronger, and increased their range and presence blocking shots and grabbing boards. 

The team, rounded out by some serviceable contributors on the wings, and off the bench, can cause a lot of problems with its full-court press, and is generally tough to deal with inside. 

All were on display again Wednesday night, though for one reason or another, the Lady Falcons couldn’t shake a scourge of missed opportunities that were a consistent struggle, and too much to overcome in the close loss. 

They made more than enough excellent plays in every area for a chance to win, but repeatedly couldn’t capitalize on the opportunities that came along, and subsequently passed by with few to no points to show on the scoreboard. 

An exception was their inspiring run to start the fourth quarter that erased a 38-30 deficit in a span of four minutes, and briefly gave East some hope the spell of bad luck hanging over the night to that point was finally breaking. 

The catalyst was some full-court pressure that the Lady Falcons dialed up after a quick basket to open the period, forcing a quick turnover that the Tanner sisters converted into a layup. Zahmaria Robinson then finished on a drive to the basket to make it a 6-0 streak, and cut the lead down to just two. 

The gap lingered, and was briefly stretched back to four points by an ACE answer, but East otherwise had things pretty tightly locked down on the defensive end, and battled back to tie it at 40 on a pair of free throws around the 4-minute mark by McKayela Tanner. 

But as soon as the score leveled, the Lady Falcons’ poor offensive fortunes returned. And a lot of missed shots, on both ends, ensued before ACE’s Khloe Stanley forced one in to re-take a 42-40 lead. That number held until there were two minutes left, and the Gryphons could begin milking the clock. 

Two full-length possessions, bookending an East Laurens miss from point-blank range, reduced the remaining time to 30. McKayela Tanner, coming back, split a pair of shots at the line after drawing a foul to make it 42-41. 

But the Lady Falcons couldn’t press a turnover, and had to foul three times in a row to get the ball back, after a reciprocal 1-for-2 trip to the stripe that rounded out the 22-point night of ACE scoring leader Sara Rhett Farmer. 

Trailing 43-41, East drew up a play that called for a drive and handoff toward the weak side, but the exchange missed its target and got loose as the final seconds expired. 

East, with McKayela Tanner posting 20 (seven in the fourth quarter) as its only double-digit scorer, had plenty of early chances to put some distance between itself and ACE, but instead, it remained a relatively even ballgame for most of the first quarter. 

In the second, the Lady Falcons worked their way into a lead of four about midway through, but hit a three-minute drought that the Gryphons converted for a 9-0 run to overtake them on the way to a 24-18 advantage at halftime. 

Some defensive adjustments out of the break briefly dented the edge, but ACE eventually had the lead back up to 10 points by the 3-minute mark of the third. 

Givens scored 14 and pulled in 10 rebounds for a double-double, and McKayela Tanner again put up a team high of 18 points to go with eight assists and four steals, to lead the Eastside girls in Tuesday’s win at Southwest. 

Lowther, with seven points and nine re’s, Brenda Tanner, tallying seven points and five boards, and Robinson, with five points, four steals and one of the team’s two blocked shots, were also key contributors. 

All chipped in a great deal on the defensive effort that held Southwest to just one field goal in the first quarter, and helped the Lady Falcons through some early struggles getting their rhythm established on offense. 

Three connections at the free throw line had Southwest on the board, but barely, after one with an East Laurens lead of 12-5. 

The Patriots hung around in a relatively even second quarter, but the game was never in question after the Lady Falcons took a lead of 28-17 to the half, and continued pulling away after that. 

The East boys came out hot, with Jeremiah Rozier swishing a jumper, in similar fashion to Mitchell’s opening play the following night, on a quick break off the tip to open the scoring. 

Snead completed a 3-point play before the Falcons tacked on a pair of free throws to complete a 7-0 run in the first two minutes. 

But the trend didn’t continue. Southwest flipped the momentum, and score, in a hurry with a 15-2 rally as East Laurens began to settle for shots from outside – one of the few places the Falcons haven’t been overly strong this year, though they did out-shoot their season average of 27 percent with a mark of 7-for-21 in this game – with little further luck early in the game. The Patriots also crashed the boards hard on both ends, and quickly began reaping the rewards. 

The teams went back and forth for the rest of the first half, with East chipping away at segments of the Southwest lead. But the Patriots caught fire from outside and reopened an advantage of 47-34 by the break. As a team, Southwest was 9 for the same number, with all but one of its makes from deep credited to leading scorers Brandon Ashley (5-for-7, with 24 points) and Chase Dupree (3-of-8, with 22). 

The Falcons buckled down defensively and opened the third on a 12-2 run to get that deficit down to three points, then to two twice in the last couple minutes leading up to a set of Washington free throws that briefly evened the count at 52.  Southwest was back up 54-52 entering the fourth quarter. 

Again, second chances on the boards were a key down the stretch for the Patriots, who restarted on a 4-0 run to go up six, and never let East make any further threat to narrow the gap. 

Washington, leading the charge with 25 points, Kelvion King, following with 17, and Ty Snead, adding 16, carried the Falcons offensively. Washington and Ty Snead shared the lead in rebounds with five each.