Miller Grove’s Terrence Edwards (with ball) drives past Southwest DeKalb’s Eugene Brown during first half action of the Region 5-5A boys’ overtime thriller at the Purple Palace. (Photo by Mark Brock)

A Top 5 boys’ high school basketball battle at Miller Grove’s Purple Palace gave fans a rollercoaster ride as the No. 4 Wolverines pulled out a 63-58 overtime home court victory over the visiting No. 3 ranked Southwest DeKalb Panthers for the Region 5-5A lead.

The game was tied 49-49 when a charging call on Southwest DeKalb gave the ball to Miller Grove with 16 seconds to play and looking at going the full court for the opportunity to hit a game winner.

Lorenzo Anderson was fouled on a drive and went to the foul line with 3.9 seconds to play. He calmly hit both ends of the one-and-one to put the Wolverines up 51-49.

The Panthers got the ball to playmaker KD Johnson who dribbled up court and put a layup off the glass just before the buzzer to send the game into overtime knotted at 51-51.

Miller Grove got the tip in overtime and ran 1:45 off the clock before Jermon Clark was fouled on a shot in the lane. Clark hit the first and the second rimmed out. Kevin Paige, who had three offensive put backs in the fourth quarter, slid inside on the rebound and put the miss back in the goal to give the Wolverines a 54-51 lead with 3:12 to play.

Paige made a big play on the defensive end tipping a Panthers’ missed shot to Anderson who got the ball up the court to Maurice Harvey who split a pair of defenders for a layup and a 56-51 Miller Grove advantage with 2:36 remaining.

Southwest DeKalb’s Devonta Brittain found a wide-open Eugene Brown in the left corner for a three-pointer to cut the lead to 56-54 with 2:19 to play.

Clark answered for the Wolverines as Harvey found him under the basket for a score. Anderson hit one of two free throws with 53 seconds to push the lead back out to five (59-54).

Back-to-back turnovers by the two teams had Johnson free down the court for a layup with 44 seconds remaining to trim the lead to 59-56.

The Wolverines got up the court against the press and Anderson looped a pass down the baseline to Paige for a rim rattling drunk to bring the Wolverines’ fans to their feet with their team up 61-56 with 22 seconds to play.

Johnson answered with a drive on the other end for a basket with 11.3 seconds and Harvey got the ball up the court quickly to find Paige for the exclamation dunk as the clock ran out.

Southwest jumped to a 16-9 lead at the end of the first quarter on Johnson’s old fashioned three-point play just before the end of the period.

The Wolverines battled back to take a four-point lead on a three-pointer by Harvey. The Panthers got a pair of scores inside from James Glisson in the final 52 seconds of the second quarter to tie the game at 24-24 at the half.

Kevin Paige led Miller Grove (12-6, 7-1) with a 14-point, 10-rebound double-double with Terrence Edwards added 14 points, Lorenzo Anderson 12, Jermon Clark 11 and Maurice Harvey 10.

KD Johnson and Eugene Brown both finished with game-high 18 points for the Panthers (13-6, 5-2) and James Glisson added 14.

Southwest DeKalb’s Lanee Edwards (15) gets in the lane for one of her 21 points as Miller Grove’s Kaylen Ponder (5) tries to defend the shot. (Photo by Mark Brock)

(G) SW DeKalb 66, Miller Grove 45
Eleven different Southwest DeKalb Lady Panthers scored as they rolled to a 66-45 win over the Miller Grove Lady Wolverines to take over sole possession of second place in the Region 5-5A girls’ standings.

Lanee Edwards scored 13 of her 21 points in the first half including six in the final 1:31 of the second quarter as the Lady Panthers took a 37-25 lead into the half.

Southwest DeKalb (9-11, 6-1) held Miller Grove to just five points in the third quarter, including a 4-minute, 18-second scoreless stretch, on the way to extending the lead to 54-30 heading into the final period of play. Edwards was at it again scoring eight points, including 8 of the first 12 in the quarter, as the lead grew to 49-27.

Miller Grove’s sharpshooting senior Keshuna Patterson hit for 13 of her game-high 31 points in the final period after hitting for 17 in the first half. Patterson’s eight-point explosion midway through the second quarter pulled the Lady Wolverines (10-8, 5-3) with 28-23 after trailing 24-11.

Edwards would answer with her six consecutive points that put Southwest up 37-25 at the half.

Jayla Kimbrough joined Edwards in double figures for the Lady Panthers with 10 while Michaela Benefield added nine points and nine rebounds.