The Cedar Grove Saints defeated the Columbia Eagles 44-41 to win the 2022 DeKalb County Middle School Boys’ Basketball Championship. (Photo by Mark Brock)
Trailing 35-26 late in the third quarter the Cedar Grove Saints rallied for a thrilling 44-41 DeKalb County Middle School Boys’ Basketball Championship game victory over the Columbia Eagles at Miller Grove High School on Saturday.
Cedar Grove’s Reggie Harris was the catalyst scoring 13 points over the final 8:47 of the game. He scored a basket with 52 seconds left in the third quarter to cut the deficit to 35-28 heading into the fourth quarter. He then sandwiched two free throws by Emanual Green with a pair of layups and a free throw of his own to knot the game at 35-35 with 4:39 to play.
He hit a pair of free throws for a 37-36 lead before Columbia’s Bryson Bigsby’s basket flipped the game back to Columbia 38-37 with 3:39 remaining.
Harris finally game Cedar Grove the lead for good with another driving layup with 3:04 to play to make it 39-38. Corey Holt added a layup for the Saints to push the lead to three at 41-38.
Columbia’s Bryson Bigsby (with ball) drives the baseline against Cedar Grove’s Reggie Harris during second half action of Cedar Grove’s championship win. (Photo by Mark Brock)
Bigsby pulled Columbia back within 41-40 with 1:34 to play with a shot in the lane. Harris would add a pair of free throws to go with another by Green to make it 44-40. Green had missed the first free throw with 0.3 seconds on the clock and fans and teams thought the game was over on an apparent one-and-one miss and rushed the court in celebration.
After the teams were back to the benches and the fans back in the stands a technical was levied on Cedar Grove. Green hit his second free throw and the Eagles went to the line on the other end down 4. Bigsby hit one of two free throws and Columbia got the ball with the 0.3 seconds on the clock.
Cedar Grove’s Reggie Harris was named MVP of the DeKalb Co. Middle School Boys’ Championship game.
Brandon Bigsby took the throw in down the right side and lofted a three-pointer that hit nothing but net to apparently tie the game. However, the shot was disallowed by the refs as being after time ran out to give Cedar Grove the victory.
Reggie Harris earned the game’s MVP award for his late game heroics as he finished with 17 points and 11 rebounds in the game. Emanual Green added 17 points and 13 rebounds for the Saints.
Bryson Bigsby was a force the Saints could not stop for most of the game as he led the Eagles with a game-high 26 points and 17 rebounds in the hard-fought loss.