Warner Robins shocked by St. Pius X Catholic in physical first round out

WARNER ROBINS — The Warner Robins Demons had lofty expectations for this group coming into the season, but the St. Pius X Catholic Golden Lions pulled the rug on those and sent them home in the first round with a 73-66 final.

Gabe Jacobs left it on the floor, scoring 35 points in his final game for Big Red. All four Region 1-4A teams lost in the first round.

Three observations from Wednesday’s stunner:

Getting manhandled in the paint

For lack of a better term, Warner Robins got manhandled in the paint against the Golden Lions.

The Demons have struggled on the glass against other opponents, but this time was different. St. Pius had players who were one-man wrecking crews, and they constantly stole defensive rebounds right out of the Demons’ hands.

They got one, two, three or even more extra chances to score on possessions, and on a night where Warner Robins needed a solid post presence, nobody in the rotation seemed to make a dent.

Unfortunately for coach Jamaal Garman and his crew, that inability to hang ended a promising, but frustrating season.

“We just didn’t meet their physicality. Just didn’t meet it on either end, offensively or defensively,” Garman said. “It was just a bad game all around at the wrong time. Just got out physicalled. We wanted it, but they just wanted it a whole lot more, and it showed on certain plays during the game. It just was a bad day, bad, bad day for not doing the right things.”

Guarding the cutters

Something kind of lumped in with the Demons’ stumbles in the paint was their struggle to guard cutters.

There were plenty of plays where a single Golden Lion got the ball down low and scored, but there were plenty of others where a cutter dove from the weak side corner for easy, uncontested layups.

Warner Robins was so focused on the one player that the cutters were open, and that lack of awareness also played a role in St. Pius’s stolen defensive rebounds.

“Just gotta be alert. We weren’t alert enough,” Garman said on the cutters. “Because we talked about all those different things that they were going to do. One kid’s going to drive, and the other person’s going to go to that backside corner, and they’re going to kick it to that backside corner and he’s going to knock the shot down.”

“And that’s what he was doing. They was cutting to the basket on us too. Just not really focused, man. Maybe about 92% focused when you needed 100%. But it just wasn’t enough, it just wasn’t enough.”

Leaving it all on the floor; Legacy

Gabe Jacobs without a shadow of a doubt left everything he had in the Demon Den on Wednesday night.

Late in the game he wanted the ball. He took the tough shots, he took the contact, he put his body on the line for just one more game in a Warner Robins uniform.

Unfortunately, his 35 points weren’t enough to push the Demons over the top, and they fell. He was emotional heading to the locker room for one last time.

Jacobs is one player in the long line of Demons before him who have built this program. Cam Perkins, Jay Johnson, Jacolbey Owens, Nelson Phillips and others.

Garman couldn’t help but get a little choked up talking about him, and the legacy he’s leaving at Warner Robins High School.

“He’s leaving [a legacy] that’s going to be tough to follow. But we’ll have kids that will be able to follow it. Just love what Gabe has brought to the whole program,” Garman said. “He’s an outstanding young man. Just hearing him talk in the locker room just kind of brought me to tears. How he things and how he does things is very strategic. I’m super proud of him. I’m glad he’s part of my program, you know I ain’t have to coach against him. So that was good. That was very good.”

Bonus: To those that are returning

Garman and his staff were in the locker room after the game for an hour. For a while, it was silent, grieving the season’s end. But after a while, it got a little louder as the classic coach speech started.

There are those who will be returning next year, and Garman signaled that there will be changes.

“Take the offseason serious. Don’t halfway do things in the offseason. That came back to bite us in the butt today,” Garman said. “Just missing days of workouts for whatever apparent reason. If you really wanna be a team that goes deep into the state playoffs, you got to put the work in early. You can’t put the work in later on because it’s going to be too late later on because everybody else is putting the work in early.”

“The bunch that’s coming back, we’ve already reiterated to them that there’s going to be no holds barred, man, this offseason,” he added. “You’re not missing days of workouts, you’re just not going to be able to do it. Those things carry over to the season, so we’re just going to make sure we reiterate that and push them to be the best team that they can possibly be. We do have a region championship to defend next year.”

“All is bad right now, but we still got some great things that we can build on for next year.”

UP NEXT

The Demons finish the 2024-25 season with an 18-8 record, and Region 1-4A champions.