APEX — Middle Creek 20, Athens Drive 0.
That was the score right before Athens finally scored on Tuesday night with 2:32 left in the first quarter. The Jaguars continued to fall behind even further, and trailed Middle Creek 29-8 after one.
But the No. 9 Jags clawed their way back into it, using a 19-4 third quarter and their first lead of the game at 44-43. However, the comeback bid seemed to take its toll on the Athens players' energy come the fourth quarter, as the Jaguars finally succumbed to the No. 10 Mustangs, 62-59.
"I'm proud of them because we could have just keeled over and they came back with some fight and showed a lot of heart and showed a lot of character," Athens coach Robert Clemons said. "It took a lot of energy to come back and to take the lead. It took a lot of energy and then when we needed some big shots to sustain it, we were worn out from coming back from that huge deficit."
In the first quarter, Middle Creek shot a scorching 4-of-5 from 3-point land, while the Jags connected on just 2-of-8 — both coming from reserve guard Rahim Jenkins. Almost everything fell for the Mustangs, in what could have been a demoralizing quarter for Athens.
"I told our kids, that was probably the best quarter of basketball that was ever played in that gym," Middle Creek coach David Kushner said. "We've been having really good quarters and then having drop-offs. That's not the first time that's happened and I tried to warn against it."
Instead, the Jaguars opened up the second quarter on a 8-0 run, and found themselves down 14 at half.
"We let Middle Creek give us a punch early. They kind of smacked us around," Clemons said. "I told them 'we're not going to get it back all at one time, and as long as we chip at it we're going to get back in it.' We worked and worked and worked and got back in it ... then down the stretch we were worn out from it."
Middle Creek forward Garrius Adams, who has signed to play at Miami (Fla.) next year, was held scoreless in the third after sitting out most of it with dizziness.
Forced to turn to other players, the Mustangs were unable to get much going offensively as Athens started racking up enough points and forced turnovers to mount their 44-43 lead with 50 seconds left in the quarter.
"It was rough," Kushner said. "I think other people were trying to make the biggest play when all we needed to do was make the simple play."
In the fourth, the two teams went back-and-forth over the last five minutes. The Jags' Quentin Edmundson, who finished with 18 points, hit a runner in the lane to put Athens up 53-52 with 3:25 left.
Despite getting three offensive rebounds on its next possession, the Jags couldn't add to that lead when Josh Davis, who led all scorers with 27 points, missed the front end of a one-and-one. It was one of just two missed free throws on the night for Athens.
When Middle Creek came out of its timeout taken at the 2:04 mark, it ran a play for sharpshooter Tom Tankelewicz, who drained a intensely contested 3-pointer to take a 55-53 lead.
Tankelewicz had 21 points, leading the way for the Mustangs' perimeter shooting.
"I thought Tom was huge all night," Kushner said. "He didn't have that many good looks but he hit pretty much every one he had."
Adams went to the line for two of his 22 points to widen the margin to four; and it stayed that way until less than a minute left.
Around the 50-second mark, Adams collected a defensive rebound and was guarded by Davis in the backcourt. Adams started around Davis, but Davis tipped the ball away from Adams as he dribbled up the floor.
The deflected ball went straight to Edmundson, who zipped it right back to a streaking Davis for a wide-open jam to cut it to 57-55 with just 31.7 ticks on the clock. It was as close as the Jags got, however, as the Mustangs knocked down 7-of-8 free throws in the game's last 1:40 to hold onto the home-court win.
