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Glenn Hills tops Statesboro at Gentleman's Classic
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Despite the efforts of Glenn Hill's Aaron Williamson, left, Statesboro High's Jerquale Lee starts a fast break and finishes with a score during the second quarter Friday.

Gentleman's Classic Scoreboard

Metter 69, Portal, 67

Drew 72, Bradwell Inst. 68 (OT)

    Region play has yet to officially start for Statesboro, but the Blue Devils may have provided a preview for February’s Region 3-AAAA title game Friday night as Glenn Hills survived a ferocious late charge by Statesboro to take a 56-52 victory in the final game of the Gentlemen’s Classic Friday night at the Devil’s Den.
    The Spartans erupted for a 17-1 run throughout the second and third quarters and led by as many as 13 points, but the Devils nearly came the whole way back. Down by three points with 9.9 seconds to play, Jerquale Lee had an open shot from the right corner, but fired long.
    Maquan Turner secured the rebound and hit a free throw to ice the game away.
    “We had a lot of fight in us tonight,” said SHS coach Lee Hill. “That’s what you like to see. We weren’t able to finish it out at the end, but to dig down and come back against a good team like Glenn Hills shows us the kind of team that we can be.”
    Turner scored 10 points — the only Glenn Hills player in double-digits, but one of nine different players to register points — to keep the Spartans (13-0) undefeated on the season and retain their No. 2 ranking in the latest MaxPreps Poll. Statesboro (12-3) had climbed to No. 7 in the poll, but may now be in danger of dropping out.
    The last couple of meetings with Glenn Hills haven’t gone the Devils’ way — the Spartans eliminated Statesboro in the first round of the 2009-10 Class AAAA state playoffs — but Hill chalked it up as a valuable learning experience.
    “I thought we played pretty well,” Said Hill. “But we definitely has some spots where we weren’t able to execute. That’s going to get exposed when you play good teams.”
    A stretch of hot shooting by the Spartans and some early foul trouble for the Devils proved to be the deciding factor as Glenn Hills overcame a deficit in the opening minutes and started to pull away late in the second half.
    Statesboro scored the game’s first four points, but the Spartans battled back to take an 11-9 lead after one quarter.
    The teams continued to go back-and-forth, with Alex Simmons (10 points, 8 rebounds) controlling the paint for the Devils. Glenn Hills repeatedly misfired from beyond the arc, but rode some fortunate long rebounds to 10 second chance points to stay close.
    When Zaquavian Smith and Yakeem Coleman picked up their second and third fouls, respectively, of the first half, the Blue Devil backcourt took a hit and Glenn Hills was waiting to capitalize.
    Trailing 20-18, Aubrey McRae (9 points) connected inside to start a 17-1 Spartan run that spanned the final 4:08 of the first half and bled into the opening minutes of the third quarter.
    During the run, Glenn Hills connected on 5-of-6 3-pointers, including a pair each from Turner and Santo Nina.
    “Not having (Smith and Coleman) defending outside really hurt,” said Hill. “At first, Glenn Hills wasn’t hitting much from outside. They finally got going and we changed things up, but they hit a few too many.”
    By the time that Statesboro was able to stop the bleeding midway through the third quarter, the Spartans had already built a comfortable double-digit lead.
    Back off of the bench from their foul trouble, Smith and Coleman finally started to make their presence known, but Glenn Hills was able to maintain its advantage and shave valuable seconds off of the clock with each trip down the floor.
    Refusing to give up, Statesboro made one final charge.
    Trailing 51-42 with 4:30 to play, Coleman (16 points) connected on a deep 3. Glenn Hills misfired on its next possession and Smith knocked down a jumper from the top of the key to pull Statesboro within 51-47.
    The teams traded a pair of possessions with no points to show before Coleman was fouled while draining a deep 3. He nailed the free throw to tie the game at 51-51 with 2:07 to go, but that was as far as the Devils got.
    Maurice O’Bannon hit a layup to put the Spartans back in front and McRae made a pair of free throws after one foul shot from Coleman to make it 55-52.
    The Devils got three looks from behind the arc — all misses — before Javaris Thompson pulled down the rebound for Glenn Hills and was fouled.
    Thompson missed the potential game-winning free throw, but Statesboro was unable to convert on its final opportunity.         Statesboro will take a few days off and celebrate the new year before beginning its sub-region schedule on Jan. 4 at Liberty County.

    Mike Anthony may be reached at (912) 489-9404.