Habersham Central High School’s varsity basketball teams split results with Flowery Branch High School on Friday night as the Raiders inducted a pair of former players into the Hall of Fame.
The boys (3-2) came out with a 70-57 victory, while the Lady Raiders (0-5) pushed the Lady Falcons into overtime before falling 45-41.
Both Sheena Trimiar and Heath Barrett were the honored guests inducted into the HCHS Basketball Hall of Fame.
BOYS: HABERSHAM CENTRAL 70, FLOWERY BRANCH 57
The Raiders completed a second consecutive wire-to-wire win Friday night after doing the same earlier in the week against White County.
Habersham was led by big man Josiah McCurry with 15 points and was one of four in double-digits for the home team.
Enzo Combs (13), Brannon Gaines (11), and Jalen Davis (10) were the other three.
“I think Jo Jo [McCurry] just draws so much attention,” head coach Tommy Yancey said of his 6-foot-8, 260-pound center. “Justus [Gober] had a couple of huge plays right down the stretch there for us. I think he had six points in about a minute, 45 seconds. Jalen did a heck of a job shutting down [Jeremiah Ware] there for us and really not letting him get going. Brannon always does such a great job getting us in stuff and making sure we’re playing at the right tempo.
“You can pick any of the guys that played large minutes tonight and I’ll give them all credit.”
The Raiders held a 33-21 lead coming out of the halftime break and let the Falcons get back into the game throughout the third quarter. At one point, early in the fourth quarter, it was a 47-41 ballgame.
“I feel like we lost a little bit of focus there in the third quarter,” Yancey said. “We had a little bit of a lead and didn’t come out great. Every once in a while we have a tendency to put too much pressure on ourselves and we started doing that.
“They were able to show a little bit of leadership and maturity and close out the deal there at the end.”
With a quick turnaround to face Stephens County on Saturday, Yancey said he told his guys to “enjoy it for tonight, get some rest, but move on, man. The 24-hour rule. We’ve got to get ready to roll tomorrow morning. We’ve got a big rivalry game coming in.”
The Raiders will tip around 2 p.m. Saturday at home against the Indians.
GIRLS: FLOWERY BRANCH 45, HABERSHAM CENTRAL 41 (OT)
Coming off a 58-point loss to White County, the Lady Raiders took the Lady Falcons to the brink on Friday night.
HCHS led for most of the game before trading blows late in the contest and then tying it with just a few seconds left on the clock in regulation.
Flowery Branch had an inbounds play with half a second left but wasn’t able to get the shot off before the horn sounded.
“It was a good game,” head coach Bill Bradley said. “My fear coming into the game was that we’ve been blown out four games in a row. Not only do we not know how to win, we don’t know how to play in a close ballgame either. I knew the first time we saw a close ballgame, we were going to have growing pains and we had them.”
Bradley cited going 1-for-7 from the free throw line and turnovers as examples of those growing pains.
HCHS was led by freshman Daytona Underwood with 13 points in regulation. Fellow freshman Karah Dean had nine.
Good news for the Lady Raiders was the return of Kyia Barrett from injury. In November, Barrett signed to play for Anderson College at the next level.
Barrett practiced Wednesday and Thursday before getting her first minutes of the season Friday night and she played all of them.
Barrett finished with nine points in regulation.
With the quick turnaround, Bradley said he’s interested to see how Barrett’s knee reacts to playing so much so soon.
“The thing is, how is Kyia’s knee since this is the first time she’s played,” Bradley said. “Not only did she play a 32-minute game, she played an overtime as well. We had to do it extra.”
As for his team, which started three freshmen, responding to this effort after the previous four games and then turning to a rivalry game the next day, Bradley didn’t mince words.
“They’re young. I think they’ll battle,” he said. “If they don’t, they’ll get their heads knocked off because it’s going to be a physical war. It always is.”
The Lady Raiders tip of Saturday at 12:30 p.m. at their home gym with the Lady Indians.
