Tigers win region 8AA championship; state playoffs begin here this Friday

W-W Tiger seniors Scotty Long, Jarekus Bowman, Lucious Stewart, and Ricardo Davis pose with the Region 8AA trophy after the championship game they won last Saturday night. (Photo by Joni Keiser)

Since last week's report the highflying Washington-Wilkes Tiger boys basketball team has added two more important victories to it's now eight-game winning streak. Those two were in the 8AA region playoffs and propelled the boys into the Region 8AA championship and a first place seed going into the first round of the state playoffs.

Powerful wins over Dawson County (52-30) and North Oconee (60-42) secured W-W a home playoff venue in the first round and also in the second round if they win the first one. The trouble is, Region 8AA is paired off with Region 6AA in the first round and according to Tiger Head Coach Don Keiser, "We drew the best region in the state for the first round."

There are three Top-10 teams in that region (GAC, Wesleyan, and Lovett) and the Tigers' next opponent, the Pace Academy Knights, is a No. 4 seed only because those three are that good. Pace is coming to town having lost only four of its last 12 games and only one of those losses was not to a Top 10 team.

Tiger players and fans celebrated the region championship win at Banks County last Saturday night. (Photo by Joni Keiser)

Game time is this Friday, February 22, at 7:30 p.m. at the W-W Tiger gymnasium.

"My seniors told me they were getting this for us," Keiser reported. "Lucious said he was not going to let us lose" going into the region playoffs. The coach also praised Deandre Stewart's play during the two games as "incredible." Keiser said this year's region playoff outcome was way better that last year's.

"Last year we went in as No. 1 and came out as No. 4," he said. "This year we went in as No. 1 and came out still as No. 1."

The Knights will be bringing a 6-foot-2 power forward that is their superstar. "If we can stop him, we'll be all right," Keiser said. "We have a chance," he continued, explaining that Pace is "good and quick but we outsize them."

If the Tigers prevail over Pace, the next game would be at home on Tuesday, February 26, against either Rutland or Pepperell.

Of this week's two playoff wins, Keiser said, "This team has been through it and worked hard. Both of these games were nearly perfect 'team' games with four players in double figures in each game. We have finally learned how to play as a team."

Against Dawson, Lucious Stewart had another triple double night with 14 points, 15 rebounds, and 10 assists. Jarekus Bowman had 12 points as did Scotty Long who also added 11 boards. Deandre Stewart sank 11 points including three 3s, two of which were "from downtown." Akiemos Coleman also had a "great rebounding game," Keiser said.

Against North Oconee, the game was never really close even though two Tigers got in foul trouble early in the second half. Still, there were four in double figures: Lucious Stewart had 16, Deandre Stewart had 12, Quincey Bradley has 11, and Long had 10. Coleman added another nine rebounds.

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