Both varsity basketball teams were flying high Friday night as Habersham Central High School downed Apalachee High School by margins of 17 and 33, respectively, in a home region matchup.
Girls: Habersham Central 50, Apalachee 33
The Lady Raiders (5-9, 2-1 Region 8-AAAAAA) were a tough bunch to deal with at Raider Gymnasium Friday.
The home squad turned a two-point first quarter lead into a 30-13 lead at the break.
“We had a great win,” Head Coach Bill Bradley said after the game. “Putting marks on the left side (in the win column) is always good, but we took steps forward today. I saw growth. I saw mental growth. To me, that’s as big as anything.”
The Lady Wildcats (8-9, 2-2) cut the HCHS lead down to 10 a few times down the stretch behind the play of Hannah Hollingsworth, but that’s as close as they would get when it mattered.
Kyia Barrett led the Lady Raiders with 22 points on the night, including hitting all nine of her free throws.
Daytona Underwood posted 18 points of her own.
Sophie Bramlett (7) and Karah Dean (3) poured in the other 10 points on the night for HCHS.
Underwood and Bramlett serve as the forwards for the Lady Raiders and were outsized against Apalachee, but stood their ground.
“Real proud of Sophie, real proud of Daytona,” Bradley said. “(Apalachee has) a huge inside game, but our two kids, that aren’t that big and dominant, really did a nice job on their posts.”
As is bound to happen, Bradley said he noticed mistakes – and players self-reported a few – but they didn’t bury the Lady Raiders. A few weeks ago, that might have been a different story.
“Mistakes didn’t cost us the ball game. Anytime you can make mistakes and it not cost you the ball game, you’ve got to be a little bit happy about it,” Bradley said.
HCHS turns around quickly to face North Forsyth in Cumming on Saturday with a 2 p.m. tip time.
Bradley said he hasn’t watched North Forsyth – also known by the Lady Raiders moniker – yet, but he knows the team will be good.
With that said, his team will go compete because that’s what competitors do. But he’s looking more at the execution of a game plan more than anything.
“Anytime you get a really, really good team on the road, what you want to do is you want to go and try to execute a game plan so you can learn from that game plan and try to use it to help you in the future,” Bradley said. “I think there will be a lot of things to learn.”
Boys: Habersham Central 78, Apalachee 45
Believe it or not, the Raiders (13-3, 2-1) actually trailed 10-9 at the end of the first quarter of this contest.
But stifling defense in the remainder of the game, especially the second quarter, saw them run the Wildcats (4-13, 0-4) off the court.
“The guys came out and did a really good job tonight playing defense,” Head Coach Tommy Yancey said. “That was able to get us a lot of turnovers that led to some easy offense for us. That’s key for us is to make sure we get some stops and try to turn it into some easy buckets.”
HCHS posted bigger numbers with the progression of each quarter.
In the second, it was 14. In the third, 26. Finally, 29 in the fourth.
Holding Apalachee scoreless in the second quarter gave the Raiders a 23-10 lead at the halftime break.
Yancey said the Wildcats “did a good job defensively of throwing a lot of things at us” which made the Raiders uncomfortable on offense.
“Then we were able to get some stops and get some things running. That allowed us to be a little bit more comfortable in the offensive end,” Yancey said. “Once we were able to do that, the guys were able to go out and dominate the situation. It was something we were looking to do, but we didn’t realize we were going to be able to turn them over this much.”
The Wildcats posted their biggest quarter (22 points) in the fourth quarter as the teams were subbing in players further and further down the bench. But those guys at the end of HCHS’s bench kept pushing the lead and didn’t slow down.
Josiah McCurry led the charge with 21 points in the game thanks to a 14-point third quarter, which ended with an alley-oop assist from Enzo Combs for a big exclamation point on the period.
Combs had a game himself with 13 points.
Caden Garrison scored 11 in the second half and Brannon Gaines had 10.
Overall, 12 of the 14 players dressed out on the Raiders’ bench put points on the board.
HCHS finished the night 16-of-19 from the foul line, good enough for 84 percent.
The Wildcats had one player in double digits as Aiden Pierce scored 15 in the second half.
The Raiders are in a stretch of playing 5-of-6 region games at home before doing the opposite on the back half of the schedule.
For Yancey, it doesn’t matter where the games are played. Region games matter.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s at home, away, if we play in a parking lot,” Yancey said. “Every game we’re going to play in-region has got to be important and we’ve got to put a lot of importance on it.”
The boys will tip off following the girls around 3:30 p.m. Saturday in Cumming against North Forsyth.
