HIAWASSEE — The Towns County boys put on a clinic Saturday in the second round of the Class A Public playoffs.
The Indians hit 27 consecutive free throws, including the team’s final 16 points, to hold off Warren County, 77-67, in a battle of top five teams. The win pushed the fourth-ranked Indians (22-3) into the Elite 8 round and they will head to Region 2-A Public champion Irwin County next week in the quarterfinals.
It also was a battle between programs that were looking to snap long dry spells at this stage of the playoffs. Warren County was looking for its first quarterfinals appearance since 2000. For the Indians, you have to go back to the Richard Nixon administration for the last time they had advanced this far: 1974, to be exact.
“This is an amazing accomplishment with a special group of players. It’s been a long time going back to that (1974-75) group,” Towns County coach Rob Benson said. “We really didn’t talk about that much before the game. We just talked about fire and hunger and wanting it and being the better team at home. We just needed to come out and prove it. I thought we did that for most of the game.”
Towns County led from start-to-finish as the Screaming Devils (12-6) only got within two points once, at 17-15 in the second quarter, and no closer than four the rest of the way.
The Indians defense set the tone early holding the Screaming Devils scoreless for nearly the first six minutes. Warren County had five turnovers and missed its first six shots, including five 3-pointers, in its first nine possessions. A patient Towns County offense, meanwhile, used those turnovers to score the first eight points as Kolby Moss had a pair of baskets and Jake McTaggart, Collin Crowder, and Kyle Oakes all had baskets as they built a 10-3 lead.
The Screaming Devils' first points came with 2:02 left in the first quarter on a 3-pointer from Cortavion Wilder. But a streaky Warren County offense used the long ball to get back in. The Screaming Devils hit five consecutive 3-pointers to pull with 17-15 early in the second quarter.
The Indians defense went back to work, however, sparking a 7-0 run to push the lead back to 24-15. They eventually took a 34-28 lead into the intermission.
Warren County got within 34-30 to open the third quarter but the Indians answered with an 11-1 run, fueled by six points from McTaggart, to blow the game open for a 45-31 lead. McTaggart, who finished with 26 points, poured in 14 of the Indians’ first 27 points and had 18 in the second half.
But the lead sat at just 61-53 after Warren County converted a pair of steals into baskets midway through the fourth quarter. And Warren County leading scorer Lorenzo Johnson hit four 3-pointers in the final three minutes, pulling them to within 69-62 with just over a minute left
But Towns County showed that its work at the line in practice was worth it hitting 16-of-18 free throws over the final 3:07 as the Screaming Devils fouled to try and get back in the game.
“We shot the free throws well,” Benson said. “We put in a lot of practice on that every day.”
For the game, Towns County was 27-of-33 from the line. Warren County was just 6-of-10 from the line.
The Screaming Devils also were just 11-of-34 from beyond the arc.
Moss finished with 19 points for Towns County. Aidan Berrong added 13 points for the Indians.
Johnson poured in a game-high 28 points, including five 3-pointers, for Warren County. Wilder finished with 13 points and Enoch Grier had 12 for the Screaming Devils.
