The high school basketball season will extend into the weekend for three East Cobb teams when they play in the Georgia High School Association Final Four.
The Wheeler boys led the whole game Wednesday, then fought off a late challenge from Berkmar, to advance with a 53-43 win at Wildcat Arena in the Class 7A tournament.
At the same time, the Kell boys went on the road and downed Buford 57-45 in Class 5A. On Tuesday, the Kell girls remained undefeated with a 64-54 win over Jones County.
On Saturday, all three teams will compete in the semifinal rounds on neutral sites. The Wheeler boys face Milton in Buford at 4 p.m.
Also at 4 p.m. Saturday, the Kell boys will play Dutchtown in Fort Valley, followed by the Kell girls against Eagle’s Landing at the same venue.
For the Wheeler boys, it’s their first trip to the Final Four under third-year coach Larry Thompson.
“It feels great; this is a place that’s rich with tradition,” he said. “This is what people expect here.”
Thompson succeeded the legendary Doug Lipscomb, who guided Wheeler to six state championships between 1994 and 2015. The last was when the Wildcats’ star was Jaylen Brown, now playing for the Boston Celtics in the NBA.
These Wildcats are built around defense. In the playoffs so far, they held Etowah to under 50 points, scraped by Shiloh with a 65-64 overtime win and also wanted to hold Berkmar under 50.
“That was our game plan,” Thompson said, and for the first half Wheeler didn’t give the Patriots too many good shots.
Wheeler got some key 3-point shooting to build a 31-18 lead, but Berkmar fought back in the third quarter. An alley oop slam dunk cut the Wildcats’ lead to 39-34, and Wheeler led 41-36 going into the fourth quarter.
“We knew they’d make a run,” Thompson said. “I just told our players to persevere. Play tough.”
He had to call a couple of timeouts early in the fourth quarter before Wheeler regained a double-digit lead with 4:20 to play when Prince Davies fed Ja’Heim Hudson for a dunk.
That brought the Wheeler students to their feet, and they remained standing and jumping for joy with the players, as the clock expired.
The Wildcats will be facing Milton for a second time this season, after losing to the North Fulton school 64-62 in late January.
The Final Four experience will be new for both Kell teams, which will be making their semifinal debuts.
The Lady Longhorns are 31-0 and have been rolling for most of the season, with only two close calls since region play began. The Kell boys are 26-5 on the season.
The state championship games will be played next weekend in Macon.
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