The Raiders picked up a huge win on the road against Lanier High School as Habersham Central High School’s varsity basketball squads split results with the Longhorns in Sugar Hill Tuesday night.
Boys: Habersham Central 62, Lanier 59
With just one game left on the schedule – an away contest against Jackson County Friday – the Raiders (18-6, 7-4 Region 8-AAAAAA) have secured no worse than the No. 3 seed in the region tournament.
It took a come-from-behind performance from the boys in blue to pull off the victory as they trailed essentially the whole of the first three quarters.
The strongest quarter for the Raiders came in the final one as they put up 24 points to Lanier’s (10-14, 5-6) 20 points in the period.
Enzo Combs and Josiah McCurry each scored eight in the fourth quarter to propel HCHS to a win.
Combs and McCurry each finished with 18 in the game.
Brannon Gaines, who scored four in the fourth, was also a double-digit scorer with 10 on the night.
Free throws have been a tough get for the Raiders this season, but in the final quarter, the boys hit 11-of-14 attempts from the charity stripe. In the game, they knocked down 20-of-30 chances.
“We made some free throws tonight. We were pretty happy about that,” HCHS Head Coach Tommy Yancey said. “We missed a couple still, but we made more than we missed and were able to keep the lead (late).”
The Longhorns were fouling the Raiders late in the game to put the visitors at the free throw line and stop the clock and HCHS made them pay.
Lanier (10-14, 5-6) raced out to a 12-9 lead in the first quarter and carried a four-point, 22-18, lead into the halftime break.
The Raiders were able to get to the basket a good bit in the first half and into the third quarter, but were forced to take a lot of off-balance shots and layups by the Longhorn defense. A lot of those off-balance layups found everything but the bottom of the net.
“In the first half, we were very timid and almost worried as we drove of getting it blocked or picking up a charge,” Yancey said. “Sometimes in life, you’ve just got to be a man and go up there and attack. They started to attack and, weird thing, normally when you’re the aggressor, good things tend to happen for you. We started having some good things happen just by being aggressive.”
“This is huge,” Yancey said of the win.
Now, seeding will fall on Friday night’s results.
If Shiloh High beats Gainesville High, HCHS will secure the No. 2 seed with a win against Jackson County.
Yancey said the Raiders can only focus on what’s ahead of them.
“All we can do is go play Jackson County. We can’t play two games,” he said. “All we can worry about is focusing on our Jackson County game. If we take care of business there, we’ve done all we can do and just have to let the chips fall at that point.”
The Raiders and Panthers will tip off at 7:30 Friday night.
Girls: Lanier 55, Habersham Central 35
The Lady Longhorns (14-10, 9-2) hit seven of their 10 made 3-pointers in the contest after the halftime break, pushing to an insurmountable lead late in the game.
The Lady Raiders (9-13, 6-5) were within four points, 21-17, at the half.
Over the first 2:18 in the third quarter, Lanier went on a 9-1 run. Ultimately, the Lady Longhorns closed the quarter on a 21-11 run for a 42-28 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
“I’ve always said, ‘Up eight, down eight, I shoot it better’ because there’s no pressure,” HCHS Head Coach Bill Bradley said. “I thought (Lanier) did that. We were gambling at times and giving them wide open shots.”
Kyia Barrett led the Lady Raiders and was the high scorer in the game with 20 points.
Lanier had three in double digits with Asja Howell leading with 16, Jordan Johnson with 13 and Oluwadamilare Falade with 11.
In the face of the result Tuesday, Bradley is hoping to repeat a pattern from earlier this season following back-to-back losses on Jan. 13 and Jan. 16 to North Forsyth and Lanier.
“I know the kids are frustrated. I’m frustrated. But this is the same thing that happened three weeks ago,” he said. “We lost back-to-back and then went on our four-game winning streak. Hopefully we see some improvement coming out of this.”
As the coach, Bradley took responsibility for not seeing improvement of late against two tough opponents.
“If we’re not improving, I’ve got to take it on me,” Bradley said. “It’s my fault that we don’t have execution. It’s my fault that we haven’t improved.”
With Friday night at Jackson County concluding the regular season, region tournament play kicks off next week. The Lady Raiders have already secured the third seed.
“This is a great time of year,” Bradley said. “You either fight it out and you execute, learn and get better or you go home.”
The Lady Raiders and Lady Panthers will tip off at 6:30 p.m. Friday at Jackson County High School.
