Final four showdown pits Tift, Meadowcreek

Published 9:00 am Friday, March 1, 2019

TIFTON — It’s semifinals time in the Class AAAAAAA basketball tournament and all the favorites are there. There are Norcross, an undefeated McEachern, last year’s champ Meadowcreek. But on the bottom of the bracket, there’s an unexpected team.

Tift County, 21-8 and unranked, crashed the party in the quarterfinals after winning over Wheeler and refusing to leave. A win over Discovery Wednesday put them in the final four. They hope the good times keep rolling Saturday when they take on defending champions Meadowcreek (25-5) in the 8 p.m. game at Buford City Arena.

This is the 10th final four appearance for Tift County since 1986.

The Devils and Meadowcreek met at the start of the 2017-18 season in Atlanta. The Mustangs won 70-46 over a Tift team missing a handful of players because of football. Meadowcreek went on to win the state tournament, dispatching Norcross in the finals.

There is not much to compare from those two teams, said Tift head coach Chris Wade.

“They’re a lot different,” he said.

A year ago, the Mustangs had two very tall powerful post players. This time around, they are more Tift’s size. In their 75-60 win over Pebblebrook in the quarterfinals, 5’10” Jalen Benjamin scored 20 first half points and 25 overall. Damian Dunn scored 16 points and Jamir Chaplin added 16. The final score was closer than most of the game; Meadowcreek led by as much as 28 points in the second half.

The average Meadowcreek score is 62-51, similar to Tift’s 55-48.

“They guard extremely well,” said Wade. At the same time, “I feel pretty good about guarding them,” he said.

And like Tift, the Mustangs are no strangers to close games. Thirteen of their 30 contests have been decided by 10 points or fewer.

This deep into the playoffs, it is expected that Tift will face star-studded lineups. Meadowcreek is no exception. Benjamin is committed to the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Dunn signed last November with Temple. Chaplin inked with South Florida.

Tift still has no players lighting up major college basketball radars. That is despite a 19-points per game average and 550-point season from senior Marquavius Johnson and despite Tyree Marshall’s phenomenal 300-point season. The Blue Devils do have football commitments from Jameson Turner (Gardner-Webb) and Semaj Robinson (Point University) and an offer in the sport extended to Tye Conner.

The Blue Devils reached this point in their season after a grinding 47-43 victory over Discovery in Lawrenceville. That came after a 58-56 win last week over Wheeler.

“We aren’t going to blow anybody out,” said Wade.

That was apparent from the start Wednesday when the first quarter ended 7-4 in Discovery’s favor. Tift went up 19-18 at the half thanks to a buzzer-beating three-pointer by Johnson, one Wade said was “huge” for changing the game’s momentum and mentality.

The score was 35-29 after three quarters. Tift never could get up by as much as 10 points and watched the lead shrink. Five points. Three points. Four points.

Thanks to their defense, however, Discovery never regained the lead in the fourth quarter.

The Devils “kept getting stops, kept getting stops,” he said. Free throws from Johnson made for the final margin.

Much recognition went to Wendell McClain. Wade stuck him on Jaden Walker, a junior guard whose offers include Georgia Tech and Wake Forest.

“He was on one of the top guards in next year’s class,” said Wade. Walker finished with eight points.

Saturday’s winner will face either Norcross or McEachern in the finals. That game would take place Mar. 9 at 7 p.m. at the Macon Coliseum.