HOMER — For Banks County, East Hall has been the giant wall that there was no way around, over, or through. Coming into this season, the Leopards had never beaten their county-line rivals.
After Tuesday’s 82-66 win at the Banks County gym -- their second win over the Vikings in just over a month -- the Class AAA 10th-ranked Leopards have reduced that wall to mere rubble.
Senior Zez Steeple poured in a career-high 39 points from the outside to complement 19 points on the inside from fellow senior Zac Orr to give the Leopards (18-2, 8-0 Region 7-AAA) a two-game lead over East Hall (13-6, 6-2) and Lumpkin County (16-5, 6-2) with just four region games left in the regular season.
Banks County coach Mike Cleveland, however, said they aren’t looking that far ahead. The Leopards play three of their final four region games on the road.
“They are no easy games in this region and you have to be ready to play every night,” he said. “We still have some very tough games ahead. Anything can still happen.
“But, East Hall has always been the team to measure yourself by and we’ve been building to this for the last few years. I think it says we can compete with them now.”
Steeple, one of five seniors who have helped put the Leopards on the map, said it was just his turn.
“We play as a team and we just try to find whoever has the hot hand,” he said. “It was just my turn (tonight) I guess. We have a lot of guys that can score.
“Coach Cleveland is a great coach and he has just been telling us to believe in ourselves. We’re believing now. We’re just trying to start something big here.”
Steeple, Orr, and Trevae Cain were huge down the stretch as well. After East Hall had cut a 68-50 lead to 70-59 with 2:56 left on a trio of 3-pointers by Tristan Cooper, the trio was 12-of-14 from the free throw line to keep the Vikings at bay.
The Leopards were a sizzling 17-of-20 from the line in the fourth quarter. They finished 22-of-29 for the game. East Hall was just 10-of-16 for the game from the line.
“We just tried to put the ball in our best players’ hands,” Cleveland said. “They really stepped up at the end.”
Banks County never trailed after erasing an early 5-2 East Hall lead but had to withstand several patented Vikings run in the second half. Tristan Cooper and his brother Luke Cooper combined for eight treys and Tylor Brown scored all 12 of his points in the second half for East Hall.
But the Vikings could not get closer than eight points at 54-46 to close out the third quarter. A 7-0 run by Banks County off three consecutive East Hall turnovers sparked a 12-2 run to push the lead to 68-50.
Tristan Cooper finished with 21 points, including five 3-pointers, to lead East Hall. Sophomore Sedrion Morse had perhaps a breakout game with a career-high 10 points to go with four rebounds, two steals, and two blocks off the bench for the Vikings.
East Hall started fast getting a 3-pointer from Tristan Cooper and a basket by Mahki Brown for a 5-2 lead in the first two minutes. The Leopards exploded to grab a lead they would not relinquish.
A Zac Orr tip-in started it and a fastbreak layup by Steeple capped a 17-2 run for a 19-7 lead. Five different Banks County players scored in the run with assists from four different players.
Banks County built its lead to 23-9 early in the second quarter on another basket off an offensive rebound. The Vikings answered back, though, with five straight points from Morse and a 3-pointer from fellow sophomore Luke Cooper to cut the lead to 23-17.
The teams traded baskets with East Hall’s Luke Holtzclaw draining a 3-pointer to make it 28-22. But Steeple finished off the half with six straight points for Banks County to push the Leopards lead to 36-22 by halftime.
NOTES: It was just the second road loss on the season for East Hall. The VIkings other road loss was to Class AAAAA No. 4 Gainesville. ... Banks County is now 10-1 at home. The Leopards have won 5 straight since losing 42-40 to Class AAAAAA No. 10 Collins Hill. ... Both teams came into the game having scored the exact amount of points on the season (1273).
EAST HALL GIRLS 45
BANKS COUNTY 37
There was a little bit of a hangover after the Lady Vikings’ big win over Dawson County. But they were able hold off a pesky Lady Leopards squad for a big region win.
Jenny Edwards had a big game to lead No. 6 East Hall (16-4, Region 7-AAA 7-1) to its seventh straight region win and fifth in the last six games overall. The senior forward had just four points but pulled down 11 rebounds to go with seven steals.
“Jenny does a lot of things for us and is a great rebounder,” East Hall coach Justin Wheeler said. “It was an ugly game but Jenny made some big plays. We started strong and then let up some and then had a good third quarter and then had some trouble in the fourth quarter. But Banks County played us tough. We knew they would.”
Banks County (11-9, 3-5) stayed close in the opening minutes as the two teams traded the lead four times.
But East Hall turned up the defensive pressure and used five steals to spark a 9-0 run to grab the lead and then pushed its advantage to 17-6 by the end of the first quarter. The Lady Vikings exrended their lead to 21-6 in the opening minutes of the second quarter.
Banks County, however, used a 5-0 run to close out the first half, capped by a Taylor Parson 3-pointer with 3 seconds left to pull within 23-15.
The only blemish for East Hall was losing Ashlyn Ellison early in the second quarter to an apparent ankle injury. She did return for the second half.
The Lady Vikings led 27-17 midway through the third quarter but Banks County used a 7-3 run to climb within 30-24 on a Maddie Thomas basket with 2:06 left in the period. East Hall took a 33-26 lead into the fourth quarter.
The Lady Leopards got within six points at 37-31 with 3:02 left in the game but East Hall put the game out of reach with a 7-1 run for a 44-32 lead.
Carly Winters paced East Hall with 14 points, including three 3-pointers. Kylah Mize added 13 and Ellison finished with 11 for the Lady Vikings.
Banks County was led by Jaycie Bowen with a game-high 15 points. Thomas finished with seven for the Lady Leopards.
