Tyler Harris scores 13 second-half points in Warner Robins’ 60-55 win over Benedictine in Region 1-4A consolation game

WARNER ROBINS — While it won’t get them home court advantage in the first round, Warner Robins (14-13) redeemed Wednesday’s semifinals loss with a 60-55 win against Benedictine (6-19) on Friday.

Junior forward Tyler Harris closed the game out for the Demons after senior guard Gavyn Williams fouled out with three minutes to go.

Harris scored a team-high 15 points and 13 of those came in the second half. Nine came in the fourth and seven at the free throw line.

Missed free throws have been a crux for Warner Robins this season, costing them multiple games. Harris was 7-of-8 at the line in the final period as the Cadets continuously fouled him

“I’ve always told Tyler this season right here, ‘How you go is how we’re going to go,’” Garman said. “If you’re leading us, around the top leading scoring and all that, rebounding, we’re gonna win. The game’s that we’ve lost you can go back and look at the stat book and see that he might have two points, five points…and we lost.”

Despite the Cadets’ 6-18 record coming into the game, they were 3-2 in their last five and played the Demons close with their size and length.

Most of their work was done down low, despite their routine effort to get three-pointers to fall. Warner Robins responded with a similar offensive game plan, swinging the ball around to attempt an entry pass to the post.

It took both teams until the final minutes of the opening quarter to reach double digits, and most of that came from the combined 10 free throw attempts after the squads entered the bonus.

The second quarter more or less followed the first, with the exception of four three-pointers putting the Demons ahead 28-20 at the half.

Williams’ third triple was the first shot out of the half and started a 7-2 run that gave Warner Robins a 14-point advantage with just over three minutes gone in the quarter.

But from that moment on Benedictine outscored them 14-5 to cut the deficit to five entering the final period of play.

“Simple, we just stopped scoring. We stopped defending,” Garman said on giving up the run. “I don’t know if it was one of those tired lulls in the middle of the game that we had, but we had it at a bad time. Luckily we had a big enough lead. They still came into the lead by one or two points, but we never stopped playing, and that’s what I appreciate about the guys right now.”

Benedictine’s Kyree Richards hit back-to-back three-pointers to finally give the Cadets a 48-47 lead with 3:36 to play.

But Warner Robins entered the bonus on the ensuing play as they had in every quarter before.

The Demons shot 23 free throws in the second half, indicative of Benedictine’s struggles playing disciplined defense on drives and at the basket.

Leaving the game up to free throws would normally be a concern for Warner Robins, but they made it work as they closed out the game led by Harris.

Garman wasn’t pleased after Wednesday’s semifinals loss, especially considering how avoidable it was, but he thought his team responded well enough on Friday heading into the postseason.

“They did fine. I had already told them we lost home court advantage, I was like, ‘Last year we won the region and had home court advantage and we lost in the first round,’” Garman said. “The last time we were three in the region we ended up going to Winder-Barrow and losing by two and almost making it to the final four.”

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Warner Robins will enter the state tournament as a three seed, guaranteeing travel in the first round.