Stone Mountain’s Avery Thompkins (left) defends against Redan’s Chae McLaurin during the rivals’ thrilling Region 6-4A overtime game at Redan. (Photo by Mark Brock)
Redan and Stone Mountain needed an overtime period to decide their Region 6-4A matchup on Tuesday at Redan and it went down to the last second as Stone Mountain failed to get off a last second shot before the buzzer in the 68-66 Redan victory.
Stone Mountain broke away from the 56-56 tie at the beginning of overtime behind the play of Dunnell Stafford (5 points) to take a 63-59 lead on a pair of Stafford free throws with 47.6 seconds to play in the game.
Redan’s Tyonn Stuckey took over the game at that point as he sandwiched a free throw by Stone Mountain’s Avery Thompkins with a pair of drives down the lane for layups to make it a 64-63 deficit with 18 seconds to play.
He then made a steal on Stone Mountain’s inbounds play for a basket and was fouled. He converted the free throw for a three-point play and a 66-64 Redan lead with 10.9 seconds to play.
Another turnover on the inbounds play by the Pirates and Stuckey was fouled. He stepped to the line and both ends of the one-plus-one with 9 seconds to play to give the Raiders a 68-64 lead.
Thompkins was fouled and hit both free throws to pull Stone Mountain back within 68-66 with 8 seconds to play and the Pirates again fouled Stuckey with 7.2 seconds to play.
Stuckey misfired on the free throws and Stone Mountain got the ball up the court, but could not get a shot off before the final buzzer as the Raiders (11-5, 6-5) held for the win.
The Pirates (7-10, 4-7) almost lost in regulation after leading 52-46 with 4:11 to play in the game. A three pointer by Redan’s Chae McLaurin followed by a drive to the basket pulled the Raiders within 54-53 with 1:53 to play.
Darryl Moody found Josh McCanns under the basket for an easy layup with 34 seconds remaining in regulation to give the Raiders a 55-54 advantage and following a Stone Mountain miss Stuckey rebounded and an intentional foul was called with 7.4 seconds to play.
A technical was also called on Redan and Stuckey went to the line and hit one of two for a 56-54 lead. Thompkins went to the other end of the floor for Stone Mountain and promptly hit two pressure free throws on the technical to knot the game at 56-56.
The Pirates had the basketball with 7.4 seconds to play, but the Raiders forced a five second call on the inbounds to have one final chance to win the game in regulation.
Redan missed its opportunity and Stone Mountain’s A.C. Cole rebounded the miss as time ran down to 1.2 seconds. A last second shot was no good and the teams went into the overtime period.
Avery Thompkins finished with a game-high 21 points to lead the Pirates, Dunnell Stafford (8 rebounds) added 14 and teammates A.C. Cole (9 rebounds) and Rico Huff both finished with 12 points.
The Raiders were led by Chae McLaurin and Tyonn Stuckey with 20 points each and John McCanns added 15 points and 9 boards.
Redan’s BriAllen McIver (right) puts up a shot against Stone Mountain’s Kacian Lawrence (22) during Redan’s Region 6-4A win over their DeKalb County rival. (Photo by Mark Brock)
(G) Redan 70, Stone Mountain 63
A 9-0 run to open the fourth quarter by the Redan Lady Raiders propelled them to a 70-63 Region 6-4A girls’ victory over the Stone Mountain Lady Pirates in the night’s opening game.
The two teams had played to a 46-46 tie after three quarters as Redan’s BriAllen McIver took a pass from Taylor Tucker for a layup with four seconds left in the third quarter to knot the game for the eighth time as they headed to the fourth quarter.
Kia Smith got the momentum for the Lady Raiders (11-4, 9-2) as she started the final quarter with a three-pointer from the right corner to begin the 9-0 run for Redan.
McIver struck next on another great pass from Tucker and Smith picked off a pass out front on defense and drove the court for another basket. Sydney Brown’s two free throws made it 55-46 with 5:14 to play.
Kyann Perry’s two free throws at the 5 minute mark broke the run by Redan.
Redan made it a 60-50 advantage with 3:21 to play as McIver hit one of two free throws before the Lady Pirates (8-8, 5-6) would score the next eight points, six by Alexis Stephens-Warren, to cut the lead to just two at 60-58 with 2:03 to play.
Kerrigan Johnson would pretty much seal the victory with 1:48 to play as she answered the Stone Mountain run with a clutch three-pointer to push the lead out to 63-58.
Redan would go on to hit five of six free throws in the final 51 seconds, two each by Smith and McIver, to seal the win.
Kyann Perry hit for a game-high 25 points to lead Stone Mountain and Alexis Stephens-Warren knocked down 21 to join her in double figures. Ceniah Flood added 6 points and 12 rebounds for the Lady Pirates.
BriAllen McIver finished with 17 points and 8 rebounds to lead Redan while Taylor Tucker added 15 points and 10 rebounds and Kerrigan Johnson finished with 11 points.