Lee County’s second-chance points put them ahead of Houston County in contested region battle

WARNER ROBINS — Houston County (16-6, 7-1 Region 2-5A) had an 11-point lead in the third quarter, but Lee County (13-9, 6-2 Region) had the last laugh in the 64-61 final after more than 10 ties or lead changes in the fourth quarter.

The first go-round between the Bears and the Trojans ended in a four-point HoCo victory in Leesburg — the first time they’ve won in the series on the road since 2017. It was actually the Bears’ fifth all-time win against Lee County in the MaxPreps era.

HoCo couldn’t get the regular season sweep on Tuesday, which would have been their first in series history according to MaxPreps.

The primary factor in that was the Trojans winning the boards.

Rebounding has been an on-and-off problem for HoCo throughout the season. Earlier in the year head coach Buddy Bivins described it as purely an issue of effort, and it was clear Lee County gave more.

Several of their bigger forwards like Trecori Green, Josiah Franklin and Tremayne Johnson constantly crashed the glass. If they didn’t outright come away with the rebound they wrapped up the Bear that did.

Even as HoCo tried to attack the paint on offense the Trojans walled up, and in several cases stripped the big man posting up.

In a game that came down to single possessions, giving Lee County extra punished them.

“We stopped rebounding and gave them too much second-chance points,” Bivins said. “We kind of seen that in the first half a little bit, but it definitely took precedence in the second half. We stopped rebounding 50-50 balls, it became 100% them. Which gave them second shots, third shots…We got to a point where we started trading baskets until they got one more than we did.”

Green in particular was a pain in the Bears’ side. He had 30 points on the night, by far the game-high, and was responsible for 18 of Lee County’s 25 first-half points.

According to MaxPreps, Green had only taken four three-pointers all year and made one before this game. He hit two and several more long two-point shots on Tuesday, and that was what made him dangerous.

Guarding his interior game is hard enough. He navigates the paint well and knows how to get around defenders for cleaner shots. But the threat of an outside jumper it made it more difficult to guard him, especially in space for players as big as Braylin Mills.

“He started hitting shots. When he started hitting shots he got in a rhythm,” Bivins said. “He was another one that was on the glass getting second-chance points. So on top of him hitting shots and getting to the rim he was getting second-chance points, he was just being very active. We had a hard time controlling him tonight.”

HoCo held a three-point lead entering the fourth quarter, and Green’s second triple of the night tied the game at 48. From there the game was tied or the lead exchanged hands 10 times in the first four minutes of the quarter.

Mills had his best offensive quarter, scoring seven points, but outside of a three-pointer a piece from Josh Jackson and Malik Gillespie the Bears couldn’t get much to go.

The offense devolved into taking treys early in the shot clock, something Bivins expressed disapproval of previously and on the sideline Tuesday.

It was a second-chance shot that sealed HoCo’s fate. Franklin picked up a loose ball under the rim with just under two minutes to play and put it through.

Karon Plummer’s corner three-pointer missed with about 60 seconds left, and Gillespie’s, too, missed in the final 20 seconds of the game.

The Bears are still the top team in the region as the only club with one loss. Lee County lost to Thomas County Central early in the region schedule for their second loss.

UP NEXT

HoCo will travel down to Thomas County Central on Saturday, Jan. 31 to play at 3:30 p.m.

Lee County’s next game is in a week when they come back up to Warner Robins to play Northside on Tuesday, Feb. 3 at 7:30 p.m.