BASKETBALL ROUNDUP: Sweep for East Laurens at Treutlen; Dublin, Trinity, West Laurens split out in season finales

Laurens County put the finishing touches on its regular basketball season with games Friday and Saturday nights that – in a few cases – wrapped up some unfinished region business. The rest simply served as a tune-up for region tournaments that begin, for some, as soon as Monday. 

East Laurens picked up a sweep in its finales at Treutlen. Trinity Christian’s girls knocked off Brentwood for a second time in the early half of a split in Sandersville. West Laurens’ boys got the senior night victory in a one-and-one against the Academy of Richmond County. 

Dublin’s boys closed out with a sweep of their weekend doubleheader, which started at home versus Dodge County and finished on the road at Treutlen. The Lady Irish came up empty in both matchups. 

Read on for some numbers from the weekend’s games, and a look upcourt at what’s next for each local team in region playoff action. 

REGION TOURNAMENT CENTRAL: Check brackets and follow nightly results from the area’s region basketball tournaments here.

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The Richmond Academy girls and West Laurens boys both had a firm upper hand in the teams’ senior night showdowns Friday in Dexter, each running away with a fairly sizable victory – the Musketeers with a 62-24 rout and Raiders by a final of 84-63 – to solidify their spots in the top four of the final region standings. 

ARC’s girls enter the 4-AAA tournament as the No. 3 seed. West’s boys, by virtue of the key win, go in as the No. 4. 

Each were pretty smooth on both ends in confident starts to establish control that neither would give up after taking double-digit leads to halftime. 

The Lady Musketeers knocked down two 3s in the first four minutes, and raced in front 14-0 before West Laurens got on the scoreboard with a Brooklyn Jackson runner at the 3-minute mark. 

Their length at all five positions made getting the ball inside – or even around the outside with routine passes – a project, though the Lady Raiders (6-18, 5-11 region) managed to capitalize on some opportunities in transition to work their way back in it briefly. 

They got within nine of the lead by the end of the first, but ARC reopened a 20-point lead, 34-14, by the break, then cranked up its pressure to pour on 19 against their six in the third to blow things open. 

Amari Butler (18) and NaCJa Johnson (14) combined to score over half the Musketeers’ points, and made four of their seven 3s.

The boys’ game followed a similar pattern as the West Laurens boys (11-12, 8-8 region) lit things up from outside in the early half. 

Nas Jones hit a pair of 3s back to back to anchor a 9-4 Raider start. R.J. Whipple sank another, and Omarion Coverson hit two more in a row before Jones’ stepback guzzler at the horn gave West six hits from deep in the first eight minutes, and a 30-16 edge. 

It was likely the Raiders’ best start of the year, and they didn’t let up, riding the lead up as high as 20 by the middle of the second period, and to a commanding 51-28 at the half before cruising the rest of the way. 

They finished the night 10-for-25 from 3-point range, as well as a sizzling 55 percent from the field at large. West’s 33 rebounds and 10 blocked shots added to the dominant stat line.

Jones, with a 16-point, 13-rebound double-double, and four other members of the class of 2025 went out with double digits on their senior night: R.J. Whipple finished with 17, Zyinn Martin and Omarion Coverson with 13 and Dorian Watkins with 12, and eight assists.

“It’s always great to close out the season with a win,” said West Laurens boys head coach Izell Stephens. “I am extremely proud of the work these guys have put in so far, and thanks to Coach Brandon Edmond and the rest of our support staff for doing a great job. I feel confident that we are playing close to our best basketball at the right time.”

Up next: Both Raider teams will open the region 4-AAA tournament on the road early this week. 

The West Laurens girls, seeded seventh, open up at No. 6 seed Harlem Monday at 6 p.m., with the opportunity to advance and take on the No. 4 Howard on Tuesday in Macon. 

The No. 4 Raider boys will be at Howard for their debut against the winner between No. 6 Harlem and No. 7 Harlem Monday night, for the right to challenge top-seed Cross Creek in the region semis Thursday at Baldwin. 

Title and consolation games will be played Friday night in Milledgeville. 

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It was a long Friday night in Soperton for the East Laurens Falcons, but they made it out of a couple of tense games with the county’s only sweep of the weekend. 

The girls won 78-52, the boys hung on to take a squeaker, 78-75. 

No further details from the games were available at press time.

Up next: The region’s remaining unplayed games Friday and Saturday each shook out in East’s favor when it comes to final seeding. Both its teams wound up in the best possible spots: Losses by Bleckley County’s girls and Dodge County’s boys over the weekend have both Falcon squads setting pretty, the girls (16-5, 9-4 region) at No. 4 and boys (15-6, 8-5) at No. 3 (in spite of a fifth loss added to their record after a Jan. 7 win over Dublin was declared a forfeit, due to a player in the game having exceeded his weekly limit of JV and varsity quarters).  

A scheduling oddity, however, will afford only the boys an opportunity to play a home game when both open in the quarterfinal round Wednesday night. 

Region procedures placing all games, girls and boys, on the home courts of the highest boys seeds for a doubleheader in each round will send the East Laurens girls to Dodge County to meet any of three potential teams (Bleckley, Dublin or Jefferson County) Wednesday at 6. The Falcon boys will hold things down on the Eastside as they await their potential foe (Central, WACO or Northeast), while also playing host to ACE Charter’s matchup with Dodge, Northeast or Southwest in the preceding game. 

Both, however, will be close to home for the remainder of the tournament if they advance to semifinal and final rounds being played just over the way at Dublin Friday and Saturday. 

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The Dublin boys won their seventh and eighth in a row – both in confident fashion – to highlight senior night Friday against Dodge, and round things out Saturday in Soperton. 

The Lady Irish fell both nights, to Dodge by a final of 60-26 and Treutlen 53-39. The Dublin boys collected a 67-47 victory Friday, and pulled away in similar fashion to win Saturday’s 49-36. 

The Dodge girls fed it to Lyric Green and Paige Ingram down low for a combined 52 points that turned Friday’s for the Lady Irish (8-16, 2-11 region) into an uphill battle from almost the get-go. 

The Squaws led 13-4 after one, and survived a bounce-back second quarter to lead 32-15 at the half. Their 20-2 third period put things completely out of reach for Dublin, which was led by the 11 points of Khalil Maddox. 

The Irish boys (21-3, 13-0 region) never trailed in the latter game, leaning for a second-straight night on the locked-in A.J. Johnson, who finished the night with 28 points and eight rebounds. 

A 12-0 run in the first quarter was the launching pad for the dominant performance, which included seven 3-pointers, 32 boards and 14 assists. 

Tristian Bell wrapped up with 14 and seven assists. 

Dodge’s Jayden Stephens had 14, and Kyler Johnson added 11. 

The Lady Irish, led by the 11-point, 20-rebound double-double of Keasia Jackson, were able to better hold their own inside in Saturday’s game, but still couldn’t put enough shots in the bucket to stay with the Lady Vikings. 

Dajah Taylor and Briana Taylor added seven points each, Taylor adding another 10 rebounds to the team total of 44. 

Dublin’s boys overcame a sluggish start, going both ways in a first four minutes that finished tied 2-2, to put away a close game with their run to put Saturday’s game away early in the third quarter. 

No scoring totals were available.

Up next: The Irish boys are in the driver’s seat as the No. 1 team in the region 2-High A tournament, enjoying an automatic bye to Saturday’s semifinal round as well as home-court after the rest of the region has battled it out to try and get there Monday through Wednesday. 

Dodge, Bleckley, Jefferson County and ACE are the possible challengers the Irish could face come Friday. 

The road ends back in their home gym, but will be a rather toilsome journey for the Lady Irish, beginning in the No. 8 berth in the bracket. They’ll visit Jefferson County (home by coincidence) for a 6 p.m. tip in the opening round Monday. A win would pit them against No. 5 seed Bleckley County at the same time Tuesday in Cochran (again by happy happenstance). No. 4 East Laurens awaits the advancing team Wednesday night in Eastman. 

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Trinity’s Lady Crusaders clinched the second seed in the region tournament with their come-from-behind win, 55-50, over Brentwood, though its boys couldn’t capture the same magic they had when they knocked off the Eagles at home last month, and fell 68-56 as both closed out their regular season and region schedules Friday in Sandersville. 

When the Trinity girls defeated Brentwood in Dublin earlier this season, Maddy George scored her 1,000th career point.  Brentwood made sure it wasn’t going to let the junior guard be a big factor this time around.

Fortunately for Trinity, Brinley Vinson picked up the slack early on. The junior scored eight first quarter points to help the Lady Crusaders to a 12-8 lead after one. But foul trouble for both Vinson and Lauren Williams in the second began to put some pressure on the Crusaders’ short bench as the Lady Eagles picked up their tempo and outscored them 19-7 to take a 27-19 halftime advantage.

Chloe Rozier sparked the Trinity offense coming out of the locker room, sinking a key 3 and scoring seven of the Lady Crusaders’ 17 in the period to cut the deficit to 38-36 by the start of the fourth. 

She slipped open down low to draw a key fifth foul by 6-foot-1 Brentwood forward Bailey Barron on the first possession of the period, and the game – minus the presence of the dominant rim protector and transition sprinting partner for Brentwood leading scorer Cadence English – was different from that point on. 

Trinity tied it on a putback by Maddie Grace Alligood the next time down, then forced a turnover and took the lead on a coast-to-coast score by Vinson. 

The Lady Crusaders (15-10, 5-3 region) outpaced the home team 14-11 the rest of the way. They were unable to put it away from the field early in the final minute, but a leaping steal by Alligood forced Brentwood to begin fouling, and George got her only points of the game going 4-for-4 to seal it on two final trips to the line. 

Alligood led the way with 18. Vinson had 16 and Rozier added a season-high 14. English led Brentwood with 20 and Bailey Barron added 10.

Trinity’s boys pulled off a wire-to-wire win to hand an undefeated and top-ranked Brentwood its first loss when the squads met in Dublin last month. 

This one didn’t go nearly as well, primarily due to turnovers against the Eagles’ full-court press that got the Crusaders down big early in the first half. 

It was close after one quarter, with Brentwood holding a slight lead of 12-8. But the Eagles forced takeaways early and often in the second, and capitalized to score 25 against Trinity’s 14. 

Tristan Robinson had eight in the quarter to give Brentwood a 15-point halftime lead, 37-22.

The Crusaders (3-21, 2-6 region) continued to have trouble finding answers in the third, and were outscored 18-14 to make the score 55-36. 

Trinity, whose starters put together a run in the last three minutes after the Eagles cleared their bench to make way for seniors, turned the fourth into its best quarter of the night with 20 points, but only got the lead of Brentwood back down to 12. 

Baylor Cobb and Zyion Andrews led the Eagles with 17 each. Robinson finished with 12. Ben Castro-Poveda led the Crusaders with 21 and Jag George added 11. 

Up next: The Trinity boys will have a do-or-die on their hands Tuesday night, as they play Windsor a third time for the right to keep their season going in the region 2-AA play-in game. The winner advances to take on top seed Central Fellowship  Thursday night. 

The Lady Crusaders, with Friday’s win, not only avoid Tuesday’s play-in round, but also move up to second in the seeding for a bye into the region semis. They’ll have a rematch with Brentwood Thursday at 3 p.m., for a shot at three-peating as region champion on Friday. 

All rounds of the 2-AA tournament are at Windsor Academy in Macon.