RALEIGH — Athens Drive center Josh Davis did it all on Tuesday night in the first round of the Tri-Eight boys' basketball tournament.
Davis scored 34 points, grabbed 18 rebounds, dished out eight assists, recorded five steals and added one block as the Jaguars won 77-71 over 7-seeded Cary.
"Josh has been our man all year. We don't try to hide it," Athens coach Robert Clemons said. "How Josh goes is how we go. Josh has played well all year and that's the way we need him to play."
Unlike other opponents, Cary didn't throw a "junk" defense at Davis, which he said he was glad to see.
"I felt like I had to take advantage," Davis said. "There were no box-and-ones, no double-teams and no triple-teams like there were against Green Hope so I had to take advantage of it."
Athens ran out to a 25-7 lead at the end of the first quarter, but the Imps cut that down to 36-18 at half. Cary continued to make runs at the Jags right up until the closing seconds, but could never overcome the deficit.
"[Cary] made a run, I mean those kids didn't want to quit. You've got to give it to Cary. You know [coach] Gus [Gustafson] had those guys playing till the end," Clemons said. "We kind of lost our focus, looking ahead."
Athens might have been looking ahead to Middle Creek, but don't expect the Jags to be disappointed that they'll have to play Lee County instead after the Jackets upset the Mustangs 50-47.
Since the teams were tied for second in the conference (there was a tiebreaker for conference tournament seeding) and Middle Creek did not make it to the second round but Athens did, the Jags will get a home game in the state playoffs.
"We didn't reach that goal, and the other goal was to get second seed so we could have a home playoff game," Clemons said. "The kids wanted to finish second in the league and it's been a long time since Athens has been up there."
