CONYERS, Ga. – The Heritage boys basketball team is a state quarterfinalist following its 83-73 win over Bradwell Institute on Thursday.
Heritage (16-8) will play in the Class AAAAAA quarterfinals for the first time since 1985-86, though it was then just a four-round tournament. The Patriots will try to advance to the final four for the first time since 1984-85 when they play at Region 7 champion North Atlanta (21-9) on Tuesday or Wednesday. The Warriors defeated Douglas County 91-79 on Thursday.
Josh Guilford scored 27 points and Josh Archer added 19 in the victory.
“The win is huge for the program and our school,” said Patriots coach Ralph Denmark. “Our fans have been incredibly supportive and we can’t thank them enough.”
The Region 3 champion Patriots trailed by two points through three quarters, but had a great start to the fourth to take control.
Archer scored seven points, including banking in a short jumper and adding a transition three, during an 11-0 run that began late in the third and Heritage led 65-58 at the 6:18 mark. Bradwell Institute (20-8) got as close as 66-62 with 4:30 remaining a 3-pointer from Ronald Canty.
But Canty picked up a technical foul 30 seconds later and that shifted the momentum to Heritage for good.
The 4-for-4 trip to the line from Ryan Clements and Guilford after the technical was part of nine-straight points in a 40-second spurt that stretched the lead to 75-62. The Heritage defense also stepped up late, holding the visitors to just one field goal through the first 5:30 minutes of the fourth.
“The start of the fourth we talked about getting defensive stops and I felt we did a pretty good of that,” said Denmark. “It was a team effort and everyone bought into it.”
It was a back and forth third quarter with no team holding a lead of more than six points that came at the 5:21 mark when Khalyn Weekley (team-high 25 points) hit a bucket to put the Tigers in front 46-40.
Heritage fought back and pulled ahead, 50-49 on a conventional three-point play by Trelan Scott with 2:25 to go.
Bradwell Institute trailed by a point through one quarter. The Hinesville school held Heritage without a field goal through the first three minutes of the second and got a pair of buckets from Isaiah Scott and Weekley with Scott’s tricky runner off glass giving the visitors a 28-23 lead two minutes in.
Scott scored 18 points, though he was held scoreless over the final nine minutes of the game.
Guilford hit a long 3-pointer and a lay-up in transition off a feed from Archer that was part of an 11-2 run and it was a 34-30 game with 2:30 minutes to go until halftime.
Bradwell Institute got off to a hot start and led by as much as eight points over the first three minutes.
The Tigers jumped out to a 7-0 lead a minute and a half in and made six of their first seven field goal attempts (with an assist coming on each basket). It was a 15-7 cushion after a Weekley 17-footer at the 4:47 mark.
Heritage followed with a 12-3 run as Guilford drained a pair of threes, the last of which was two feet beyond the three-point line and gave the Patriots their first lead at 19-18 with 1:19 to go in the opening quarter.
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