Douglass pulls away late against LFO
Another solid season for the LFO boys’ basketball team came to an abrupt end ths past Tuesday night as the visiting Astros of Douglass High in Atlanta used a 12-5 run in the final 2:40 to pick up a 61-52 win over the Warriors in the first round of the Class AAA state tournament.
The two teams were tied at nine after the first eight minutes. However, Brandon Simmons and Jacob Mickell each had two 3-pointers in the second quarter to give Douglass (14-13) a little breathing room.
It looked as if the Astros were going to take a five-point lead into the locker room. But with 0.8 showing on the clock, Brent Bowman threw one in from half-court to bring the crowd to its feet and give LFO some much needed momentum and the Warriors went into halftime trailing 26-24.
Douglass opened the third quarter with Santel Durham scoring seven points in the first two minutes. Josh Mickell also had a 3-pointer as the Astros boosted their lead to 36-28.
LFO, however, refused to let them get too far away. Bowman hit another 3-pointer at the 4:41 mark, Jared Mitchell sunk two free throws, and Amari Burnett made a basket with 2:26 left in the quarter to cut into the lead. Bowman then made three straight at the line with 1:30 left to tie things up at 39 apiece.
However, Douglas scored the final four points of the period to go ahead by four and two baskets by Dassani Walker in the first minute of the fourth pushed the Astros’ lead back out to six.
Needing a spark, the Warriors got one from freshman Darian Keefe, who scored the first seven points of the fourth, including a three. His shot in the paint with 4:06 remaining brought LFO to with one point of the lead, 47-46, and had Warrior fans on their feet.
But Josh Mickell knocked down a shot a minute later and, following a free throw by Burnett, Mickell hit a huge 3-pointer at the 2:40 mark. The Astros then countered an LFO miss with a drive inside by Evan Cambridge as they went ahead 54-47 with 2:05 to play.
Burnett scored five points in the final 1:37 for the Warriors, including a 3-pointer with 39 seconds to go that cut the Douglass advantage to 58-52. But Cambridge came up with a big steal moments later and Josh Mickell punctuated the victory with a final breakaway dunk with five seconds left on the clock.
Josh Mickell had 19 points for Douglass. Simmons went for 12 and Jacob Mickell had 11, while Durham added nine for the Astros, who will either face White County or Hebron Christian in the second round.
Burnett had 16 points for LFO, who finished the year at 16-12. Jayden Dover had 10 points. Keefe and Bowman each finished with nine and Mitchell added eight.