The 2014-2015 prep basketball season began with high expectations for many northeast Georgia teams but only one -- the Buford girls -- was able to bring home hardware after the conclusion of the season Saturday night in Macon at the state finals.
That does not diminish the fact, however, that this season may go down as one of the best in recent memory for the body of work as a whole by area teams and players.
At the beginning of the season the Buford girls and boys, Johnson boys, Gainesville boys, and Dawson County girls all began the season ranked in the preseason top 5 in their respective classifications. The Lady Wolves and Lady Tigers sat perched atop Class AAAA and Class AAA almost the entire season.
The Class AAAA title for the Lady Wolves was their first since winning the Class AA title in 2011 and the sixth in 10 years under coach Gene Durden. Along the way Buford got a measure of revenge knocking off Asia Durr and St. Pius in the third round to avenge being knocked out of the playoffs the past two seasons by the Lady Golden Lions.
But those weren't the only teams to have success this season. Several teams exceeded expectations while others fought injuries to stay in the playoff race against all odds. Some even had to fight Mother Nature, chief among them the East Hall girls, who were forced to play a Class AAA quarterfinals playoff game and then the semifinals on back-to-back days during the ice storms that hit north Georgia.
Staying with the Lady Vikings, they were a team many felt would be improved but few expected them to make it the Class AAA semifinals. Second-year coach Justin Wheeler deserves a lot of credit for building off the gains made by former coach Joey Rider with several talented underclassmen and finishing second in Region 7-AAA. Seniors Jatasia Bailey and Chelsea Dale provided solid leadership and if not for having to play a good Beach team on less than 18 hours rest after traveling more than 250 miles in less than 24 hours, they may have been playing in Macon as well. They lost 47-38 to Beach but trailed by two points early in the fourth quarter before running out of gas.
In fact, Region 7-AAA for the girls went 7-4 in the playoffs, including a first round sweep of Region 8-AAA in the first round. The Dawson County girls, ranked No. 1 most of the season, however, ran into eventual state champion Laney and let a fourth quarter lead slip away late in a third round loss.
The Johnson boys team set new school-records for consecutive wins (29) and wins in a season (29) but unfortunately was paired up with eventual two-time state champion Jonesboro in the third round in a state-title caliber game in Oakwood. The Knights were explosive on offense behind seniors Ty Cockfield and Roderick English and won their third consecutive Region 8-AAAA title. The Knights were ranked in the top 5 the entire season and coach Jeff Steele got everything he could out of the Knights, whose trip to the quarterfinals was the furthest since 1980 for the program.
A young Gainesville girls team, despite a lackluster showing in the Region 8-AAAAA tournament, came alive in the state playoffs. The Lady Red Elephants pulled off a pair of road upsets, including a 47-45 thriller over No. 2-ranked and Region 2-AAAAA champ Greenbrier in the second round on a game-winning shot at the buzzer. However, they ran into a buzzsaw in Mays, the eventual state runner-up in AAAAA, in the third round on the road.
The Gainesville boys rode an emotional roller-coaster over the final two weeks of the season. They were highly ranked most of the season and looked poised for a run at the Region 8-AAAAA Tournament title and possible state title run. But a pair of late-season suspensions and a season-ending injury to Sam Carpenter in the final week of the regular season decimated the Red Elephants at the guard position as they fell to the No. 4 seed coming out of the region tournament. However, D'Marcus Simonds carried the team to a first round upset of Region 7-AAAAA champion North Atlanta with a game-winner at the buzzer and they had a second straight upset bid bounce off the rim at the buzzer in a one-point loss to Jones County in the second round.
Region 8-AAAAA boys also swept through the first round. However, only Cedar Shoals, which came within a whisker of playing for the state title, made it out of the second round.
The East Hall boys advanced to the Class AAA quarterfinals for the first time since 2010 but could not get by Laney, widely considered the state's best team. The Vikings' Kyvon Davenport had a solid final season leading the team in scoring and rebounding. He demonstrated what hard work and perseverance can do showing improvement over each his three seasons after getting cut from the varsity as a freshman.
The Banks County boys won their first-ever playoff game taking out East Jackson in the first round. But the Leopards could not get past eventual semifinalist Rutland in the second round.
In all, 23 teams in the area qualified for the state tournament in all six classifications.
Not only were there some outstanding teams, there were plenty of outstanding players with some performances that will go down in memory.
The Knights' Cockfield had a week to remember midway through the season posting back-to-back-to-back 40 point games, setting a new career high in points twice in that span.
Buford's Camille Anderson had a classic shootout duel with Durr in the Lady Wolves' quarterfinal matchup with St. Pius. Durr came into the game averaging 48 ppg in the playoffs and she and Anderson practically matched each other basket for basket. Durr poured in 40 points to Anderson's 33 to win the individual battle but Buford won the war. The two combined for 73 of the 104 total points for the two teams. Anderson would cap the season with a huge 3-pointer and an assist in the final minute of the Lady Wolves' win over Carrollton in the finals.
Gainesville freshman Xavier Bledson, starting his first game for the injured Carpenter, rolled in a floating buzzer-beater against Apalachee to help the Red Elephants clinch the 8-AAAAA regular season title.
And while there were some fantastic games over the 2014-15 season, none may have been as good the Gainesville girls 45-43 win over Flowery Branch in the Lanierland finals. The two teams traded the lead nearly a dozen times with the Lady Red Elephants getting a late surge behind Taylor Hawks to erase a Flowery Branch lead.
It's hard to look into the future but many of the area teams were young and with another year under their collective belts the 2015-16 season should be one for fans to look forward too.
We will miss the graduation of some great players over the past four years like Davenport, Cockfied, English, and North Hall's Sydney Cleveland, who missed her final season with a knee injury. Cleveland was outstanding in her time for the Lady Trojans, who managed to advance to the second round in AAAA despite a rash of injuries throughout the season.
Perhaps the most special moment of the season took place at North Hall when long-time manager Nick Bennett, who suffers from autism, suited up for the Trojans against Gainesville and scored two points. At halftime he also hit his 1,000th half-court shot in front of a pack gym, which carried him off the court after he hit his shot.
The opportunity for Bennett was a year in the making by current North Hall boys coach Tyler Sanders and former Trojans boys coach and current Gainesvile boys coach Benjie Wood. There were few dry eyes in the building
Of course, no season is complete without the year-end all-star games and this year is no exception.
The GACA All-Star Basketball Showcase will be held at Armstrong Atlantic University in Savannah on March 21 at the Alumni Arena.
The event will include a Junior Showcase game and a Senior Showcase game for both boys and girls. This will be the fifth year that the GACA has had a Junior Showcase game.
-- Girls Junior All-Stars 11 a.m.
-- Girls Senior All-Stars 1 p.m.
-- Boys Junior All-Stars 3 p.m.
-- Boys Senior All-Stars 5 p.m.
Saturday
May 17th, 2025
1:29AM
