Veterans snaps five-game losing streak with 18-point comeback win at Northside

WARNER ROBINS — The saying, ‘A tale of two halves’ gets thrown around a lot, but the first and second halves of Tuesday’s 68-58 final between Veterans (9-11, 1-3 Region 2-5A) and Northside (11-7, 2-3 Region) could not have been any different.

In the first everything seemed to go wrong for the Warhawks. They turned the ball over, gave up offensive rebounds and fouled on shots at the basket.

At one point, two Warhawks fought for the same rebound and it ended up in Northside’s hands.

The Eagles blitzed early, hitting (some threes?) to get out to an 11-3 lead. The only score at that point was a triple from Jordan Bryant.

A 7-2 run followed, but they gave it right back as Northside closed the opening period 10-3 for a 23-13 lead.

After that it only seemed to pile up. The Eagles lived at the line, constantly had the ball in transition and seldom did Veterans have a chance to execute some kind of offense.

Driggers encouraged his team to push the pace from his spot on the sideline, but the turnovers mounted. The Warhawks missed a dunk and committed a traveling violation on back-to-back possessions to end the first half in a symbolic sequence, leaving Veterans down 42-24 at the break.

The Warhawks were staring their sixth straight loss in the face, but a completely different team came out of the locker room for half number two.

“We didn’t say much,” Head coach Brandon Driggers said. “We told them when we come up here, [Northside] coach Buck [Harris], he does a great job wherever he goes. We told them, you’re going to come into Northside, it’s going to be a good atmosphere, you got to take care of the basketball.”

“We got down by 18, and we told them, you don’t take the elephant down in one bite. You got to chip away at it and that’s what they did. Super proud of them for fighting.”

The first possession out of the break Veterans passed the ball around, drove and kicked it to Jaivyon Dawson, who got fouled on a three-point attempt.

Admittedly, Dawson missed it, and Northside bailed them out by fouling. But that was certainly a factor in the final two quarters.

Veterans played much tougher, attacked the basket and went up strong. They shot 15 free throws in the third quarter and it gave them a rhythm on offense they lacked in the first.

They cut the deficit to eight, and with three more free throws at the end of the third Dawson made it a three-point game with eight minutes to go.

With 5:48 left the Warhawks got an outlet pass up and the ball found itself in Tre Embry’s hands for a floater to tie the game at 54. Embry scored again on the next trip to take the lead for good. He had nine of his 11 points in the fourth quarter.

The key factor for Driggers was the fact that his team played tough and with physicality, which is a requirement in his program.

“The biggest thing, man, we challenge them every game. The more physical team is gonna win the game,” Driggers said. “When I took the program over, I’ve been telling everybody, I’m trying to build a tough program. And that’s what it was tonight. The brand of basketball that we played tonight in the second half, we’ve been trying to do that since day one when I took over.”

UP NEXT

Veterans will look to build a winning streak when they travel to Thomas County Central on Friday, Jan. 16 at 7:30 p.m.

Northside will regroup and get back in action on Saturday, Jan. 17 at 5:30 p.m.