TIFTON — “This was better than New Orleans winning the Super Bowl!”
Those words by Northeast Campus, Tift County High Principal Craig Matthews summed up the feelings of most of the teary-eyed Blue Devil faithful in the stands after a 55-50 win over Coffee High in the ninth-grade championship at Eighth Street Middle on Monday.
With Alton Dawson’s mother, Carlisa, on the front row, the Blue Devils surged out to a 16-11 first-quarter lead behind T.J. Cromer’s 11 points — including three 3-pointers.
After each make, Cromer would point to the sky, honoring the memory of their fallen teammate.
“He was the heart and soul of the team,” head coach Jason Clark said.
“He knew how to get teammates to respond.”
Clark left Alton’s No. 33 on a chair at the end of the bench, and a moment of silence was introduced by Matthews before the game began.
Players had “AJ” for Alton Junior cut into their heads and each player wore black wristbands with “AD” in white letters to honor their teammate.
“I told (Mrs. Dawson) that we are going to play this game for Alton and we would love for you to be there. So she promised to be there if it meant so much to the team,” Clark said.
Cromer would add 10 second-quarter points, as the Blue Devils would march out to a 13-point halftime lead.
A Denzel Brownlee basket with 5:44 remaining in the third period would give Tift its biggest lead at 15 points. Coffee would then score eight-in-a-row to cut the lead to seven, before Tift hit three free throws to extend the lead back out to 10.
But Coffee would score the next seven points to pull to within one point with 6:25 left in the game, before Brownlee would respond with back-to-back baskets to give Tift a 48-43 lead with just over four minutes remaining in the contest.
Brownlee would finish with 16 points for Tift.
Gerald Pledger would then ice the game with 13 seconds left with a pair of free throws, and Tift would win the championship.
Cromer led all-scorers with 23 points. Coffee was paced by Aaron Anderson’s 14 and Zack Moore’s 13 points.
But this day belonged to the blue and white.
Players cried. Parents wept. A championship celebrated. And a player remembered.
“We will all miss that smile and his overall presence on and off the court,” Clark said.
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