McDonough ends Sonoraville playoff run in second round

Ice-cold shooting dooms the Phoenix in the second round at The Furnace

With the basketball absolutely refusing to cooperate, the Sonoraville High School basketball team made just five shots in the first half and had their GHSA 4A playoff run end in the second round Saturday afternoon with a 78-38 loss to McDonough before a full house at The Furnace.

The victory meant that

McDonough, which is the third seed out of Region 5 will remain on the road with a trip to Westover Wednesday night in the Elite 8 with a visit to Saturday’s Final Four at Fort Valley State in Macon on the line.

The Warhawks have now won two playoff games on the road and will have to do it a third time if they want to get to the state semifinals this weekend.

For the Phoenix, unfortunately, Saturday was just one of those days. With shots not dropping, they simply were unable to keep up with a Warhawk team that was running-and-gunning from the get-go.

The Firebirds took the lead on the first score of the game on a driving layup by senior guard Ethan Hibberts 50 seconds in, but then went five minutes without scoring as every trip down the court was a missed shot and then a defensive rebound.

In those five minutes, meanwhile, McDonough would score 16 consecutive points to quickly get command of the game.

An emphatic dunk by Phoenix junior postman Bryson Shellnutt ended the visitors’ 16-0 run, but unfortunately, it didn’t get any better for Sonoraville as far as scoring so there would be no comeback.

The Warhawks would add a bucket after Shellnutt’s and lead 18-4 at end of the first period.

The Phoenix would score six points in the second period on three made shots — two by senior guard Brant Bryant on two driving layups — while the visitors would put 19 points on the board to lead 37-10 at halftime.

Both teams began to score a