Camden to 1-7A finals after overtime win over Tift, Vikettes win big

Published 11:30 pm Thursday, February 17, 2022

TIFTON – The Camden County Wildcats have zoomed from No. 4 to at least No. 2 in Region 1-7A. Camden, who entered with the worst region of four teams, defeated Tift County in the semifinals Thursday, 45-43 in overtime.

In the other semifinal, the Lowndes Vikettes romped over Camden, 63-35. These games set up Friday’s region finals, which will be at Tift County High. At 6 p.m., Tift County will take on Lowndes in the girls game. It will be Lowndes versus Camden in the boys championship.

Tuesday, the Wildcats were staring at that No. 4 seed at Colquitt County, where they trailed the Packers by 19 points at halftime. They outscored Colquitt 22-2 in the third quarter and won 61-55 in overtime.

Thursday did not have that deficit. Camden not only led most of the game, but it took a play run to perfection for the Blue Devils to send the game to the extra period.

Camden was ahead 39-36 with 10 seconds left in regulation, courtesy of two free throws by Brandon Sullivan.

With two seconds left, Camden fouled Will Clark to put him on the line for a one-and-one. Clark made the first shot but intentionally fired off the back of the iron on the second to pop the ball in the air. Christian Jones and Tyler Parker batted it out to Torrance Galmer behind the three-point line.

Galmer fired, but was fouled there with 0.5 seconds remaining. Down two points, he had three free throws.

Galmer made the first, but missed on the second. The third went into to tie the game at 39-39. Camden called a timeout, but was unable to get a shot off.

In overtime, Galmer gave Tift a 40-39 lead with 3:16 left, but they ran out of steam there.

Earl Murray hit a floater for the lead at 2:25, then expanded it to 42-40 at 1:53. Nothing Tift did seemed to work, even though Camden was seemingly snakebit, racking up two traveling violations in the final 65 seconds.

Thomas Mott made one free throw with 15 seconds left to go ahead 43-40. The Devils couldn’t work their free throw magic again and Mott essentially sealed it by sinking both from the line with 4 seconds left.

Parker made a halfcourt shot as time expired for the final score.

A pair of threes and 8 points by Murray in the first quarter powered the Wildcats to a 12-11 lead. Five players scored for Tift as the Devils pushed forward after trailing by six.

Galmer hit from behind the arc to start the second, giving Tift their first lead at 14-12. Mott made a fadeaway seconds later to tie it back and the lead seesawed from there the rest of the half. Galmer made a one-handed floater in the paint for a 20-20 score at the break.

Tift initially seemed on their way to exploding in the third, Parker starting the frame with a jumper to go ahead 22-20. Then came a Camden run of nine consecutive points and the Blue Devils again had to dig out of a deficit.

Parker and Jones cut it to 31-28 at the end of the period with Jones returning an offensive rebound with a second to spare.

Camden’s lead stayed at three points for most of the fourth. Galmer penetrated the lane and dumped a pass to Jones with 36 seconds left to briefly get to 37-36 before Sullivan’s free throws put them up three again in the final seconds of regulation.

Galmer scored 12 to lead the Tift attack, with Parker adding 10. Murray led the Wildcats with 16 as Mott contributed 9.

Tift will travel for the first round of the state tournament as the No. 3 seed. They will face either Walton or Marietta. Like Camden, Marietta has been pulling upsets through the tournament. The northern Blue Devils entered Region 3-7A as the No. 5 seed.

Camden’s opponent will be either Hillgrove or North Paulding.

LOWNDES 63, CAMDEN 35

Like their male counterparts, the Lady Wildcats of Camden County were not expected to be in the semifinals. But Camden upset Colquitt, 51-50, on Tuesday and landed in the penultimate round of region on Thursday.

Alas, this upset was not to be.

Camden made early shots, including a three by Andrea Seay in the first quarter, but were behind 14-7 after the initial eight minutes.

The Vikettes realized early they had the inside advantage and used it often. Otaifo Esenabhalu matched Camden’s 7 with 7 of her own in the first. When Lowndes was not going to Esenabhalu, they used Faith Johnson and Amyah Espanol to drive into the paint for layups.

Lowndes was ahead 33-14 at intermission.

The Lady ‘Cats made defensive adjustments in the second half, packing the paint. Lowndes was cut off from easy drives, but Camden continued to have difficulties matching up with Esenabhalu.

The lead expanded to 43-20 at the end of the third. Both teams emptied the benches midway through the fourth.

Esenabhalu and Espanol each scored 17 points for Lowndes and were two of four players to reach double-digits in scoring. Kaci Demps added 13 points and Johnson notched 11.

Taylor Rietveld was Camden’s scoring leader, at 10 points.

Camden will be the No. 3 team from 1-7A and will take on either Harrison or Hillgrove in the opening round. Lowndes’ opponent will be either Marietta or North Paulding.