Warner Robins claims first place in Region 1-4A with rematch victory over Wayne County

WARNER ROBINS — It’s been a long season for Jamaal Garman and the Warner Robins Demons (10-10, 5-1 Region 1-4A), but they’ve clawed their way back to .500 and are now first place in the region after a 63-58 win against Wayne County (13-6, 4-2 Region).

Tuesday’s triumph over the Yellow Jackets was the first of the region rematches as the regular season enters its final weeks.

When the Demons made the trip to Jesup last time around, they lost 59-50 at the end of a six-game losing streak. At that point Warner Robins was 4-10 and the defense of their 2025 region title felt unlikely.

But now they’ve flipped the script. They’re winners of six straight and in first place, and the on-court product looks completely different from a month ago. Garman says even from a couple of days ago.

“Everything’s been different over the last couple of days,” Garman said. “Just working hard, being determined to win. Just knowing your responsibilities and taking care of them for your teammates. Just turning into a team right now.”

It was an ideal team effort as Warner Robins held a steady lead throughout the game.

Everyone had active hands and came up with blocks and steals, disrupting Wayne County’s offense. The Demons are a team that want to push the pace to its maximum, and everyone was conscious looking ahead after a rebound or takeaway.

But there were a lot of important individual efforts to make up the whole, too.

Gavyn Williams was aggressive getting his shots up and finished with a team-high 18 points. Tyler Harris was a tremendous help on the glass along with Rykeem Ashley, but what stood out for Harris was his aggressiveness getting his own shot.

Garman has been calling for him to contribute more as a scorer, and he put 14 in the book, 12 in the second half.

“I just put them stipulations on him, man. 10 shots. You got to run at practice if you don’t have at least 10 attempts,” Garman said. “He’s just finally finding out what kind of player he is, and he’s turning himself into one of our leaders and better players on the team.”

Warner Robins led by 11 after the second and third quarters, but the Yellow Jackets made a late push as the offense ground to a halt. Wayne County trailed 55-51 with 1:33 left, but that was the closest they came. A quick 4-0 spurt in the next 42 seconds put the Demons ahead by eight and they held on to the final buzzer.

“We got real stagnant on offense, and we weren’t doing what we were supposed to on the defensive end,” Garman said of the fourth-quarter slowdown. A lot of times they were flashing and catching the ball, just turning and shooting a jump hook. So we just got to knock that out.”

UP NEXT

Warner Robins has a boys-only night coming up against Benedictine on Friday, Jan. 23 at 7:30 p.m.

Wayne County will head back to Jesup to play New Hampstead on Friday, Jan. 23 at 6:30 p.m.