Hiram Bounces South Paulding From Tournament

The hit four 3-pointers in the first quarter and scored the first eight points of the game against on Thursday in the first round of the Region 5-AAAA Tournament. The Hornets never gave up that lead, winning 72-52.

“They came out shooting the ball extremely well and they killed us on the boards,” said South Paulding head coach Jamie Watkins. “They killed us on the boards and hit seven or eight threes early and they're a lot more physical than we are -- that's the ballgame.”

Watkins didn’t mince words after his teams’ 20-point loss where the Spartans offense could just never get revved up.

Hiram head coach Jermaine Sellers said that he told his team that a quick start was necessary against South Paulding, a team they beat by three points in December and again by 16 last week.

“I told the guys that anytime you beat a team twice, it's hard to beat them a third time,” said Sellers. “We wanted to come out with high intensity and take it to them early.”

The Hornets started quickly in both the first and second quarters where they began with an 8-point run and then an 11-point run, respectively.

Leading the charge in the first quarter was Isaac Williams who had 10 first-quarter points, including two 3-pointers. In the second quarter Foday Bangura scored 11 points and hit three 3-pointers. Both Williams and Bangura led the Hornets with 19 points.

“We can be deep like that, it depends on who's on,” said Sellers after hearing that his bench did most of the scoring in the second and fourth quarters. “Foday came in and hit some big shots. He's an excellent shooter and when he's on, it's like throwing it into the ocean. We try to take advantage of that when he's shooting the ball well; we try to keep him on the floor.”

Even though South Paulding had trouble on offense all night, one bright spot was Tyler Cornelius, who led the Spartans with nine points. Cornelius was the catalyst for most of the evening when he touched the ball at the free-throw line and then distributed or shot himself.

“Based on what they did, we had to try to get it to him,” said Watkins. “They came out and tried to trap us so we were trying to get it to him in the middle. That was why he touched it so frequently.”

Jared Bohlander also shined for the Spartans with eight points and seven rebounds.

South Paulding’s season ended with the loss and the Spartans will graduate 10 seniors, according to Watkins.

Hiram will move on to play Alexander on Saturday in the second round of the Region 5-AAAA Tournament. Hiram lost by 17 points to Alexander on Jan. 28.

“We have to play a tough Alexander team that manhandled us over here earlier in the season,” said Sellers. “We've got some work to do and a big task ahead of us on Saturday.”