Decatur Boys End Season With Loss to North Hall

Playing in the middle of rolling north Georgia farmland outside Gainesville, the Decatur High boys were plowed up and picked apart piecemeal by North Hall 61-48 Wednesday night.

The Bulldogs opened the game in a daze. North Hall scored on its first nine possessions, opened up a 19-8 lead and never looked back.

Although the boys' season ends, the Decatur girls play at Sonoraville in a second-round game at 7 p.m. Friday. According to the school website, Sonoraville High is located on 7340 Fairmount Highway in Calhoun.

North’s 6-2 point guard Ethan Smith scored 25 points on delicate slicing drives, powerful shoulder-slash drives, two three-pointers and even two on back screen lobs, the first of which he dunked or least he three-quarters dunked.

“My vertical is okay, about 31 inches,” said a grinning Smith, who’ll play at North Georgia College next year. “I’m not sure if you can count that as a dunk, but if you do, that would be my second dunk ever in a game.”

Decatur which finishes the season at 17-12. North Hall, 26-3, advances to Saturday’s second round to play Morgan County, a 61-34 winner over Ringgold.

“That first half, really the first quarter, did us in,” said Decatur coach Charlie Copp. "We didn’t guard anybody and we didn’t show any patience on offense. They are extremely well coached, and they execute as well as anyone we’ve played.

“But,” he added, “we made them look a whole lot better than we should’ve.”

North Hall threw a man-to-man press at Decatur most of the game, which didn’t directly cause problems since Decatur committed a season’s low seven turnovers. But once the Bulldogs broke the press they consistently took the first shot they saw. In the first half Decatur scored only two baskets inside 10 feet.

“It was like, after spending all our energy breaking the press,” Copp said, “we didn’t have the energy or the attention span to run our offense.”

North Hall, meantime, played with great economy and efficiency. Consider one third-quarter sequence it held the ball for 1:47 and wound up getting a layup from T.J. Tate, then on its next possession held it for another 1:10 ending in two made free throws.

“We love to run the floor,” Smith said. “Sometimes we wish we could run it more than coach lets us. Most of us have been playing together since middle school or longer, so we know how each other moves.”

Senior post Adam Kelly scored 14 points and senior Avery Cagle 10.

North, ranked sixth in the state, and which has been to the AAA Final Four two of the last three years, took only 38 shots all night but made 21 for 55 percent including 6 of 11 (55 percent) three pointers. Kick in 12 for 15 (86 percent) from the foul line for sublime efficiency.

Davante Meadows came off the bench to score 12 points for Decatur, most on baseline drives, while Cordele Jackson had 11. Decatur didn’t shoot badly, making 21 of 47 from the floor for 44 percent. But three pointers told the tale, the Bulldogs making only 6 of 21 for 29 percent.

“It’s not so much the percentage that hurt us,” Copp said, “but the timing of when we took [the threes]. So often we took them before a single pass was made, and that just kills you. It’s like a turnover.”

Decatur loses four seniors off the current squad, Charlie Shew and starters Brett Riley, Kendall Ford and Jackson.

Two other region 6-AAA schools survived first-round games Wednesday. Woodward beat Dawson County 51-39 and St. Pius X beat East Hall 47-45. Meantime Buford eliminated Cedar Grove 61-43.