Randolph-Clay 70, Apalachee 54; Carver-Atlanta 68, Manchester 53

<p>Taj McCullough scored 22 points, including 13 in a pivotal third quarter, as Carver-Atlanta beat Manchester 68-53 in a Class AA boys state semifinal on Thursday.</p><p>Carver (28-4) advanced to Saturdays state championship, where it will play Randolph-Clay, a 70-54 winner over Apalachee earlier.</p><p>After a back-and-forth first half in which each team put up big runs, McCullough sparked a 17-4 run to open the third quarter to put Carver ahead for good.</p><p>Lakeves Prather scored 16 points and Korvotney Barber 15 for Mancherster (24-4), which trailed by as many as 22 in the third period before cutting the lead to nine on Barbers basket from the lane with just over two minutes to play.</p><p>But Carver hit 10-of-12 free throws to close out the win. The Panthers go for their first state title since 1969 on Saturday.</p><p>Lancie Cannon scored 24 points and Chris Jackson 21 as unbeaten Randolph-Clay beat Apalachee. Randolph-Clay (31-0) had runs of 11-0 and 10-0 in the first half to build an 18-point lead, and Apalachee (22-8) never got the margin lower than nine points after that.</p><p>Tyler Whatley scored 19 points for Apalachee, which lost in the state semifinals for the second straight year.</p><p>The Red Devils led 40-22 at the half and Apalachee opened the third quarter with a 9-0 run to cut the lead to nine. The Wildcats got as close on one other occasion. Shamaine Dukes added 14 points for Randolph-Clay.</p>