How Johnson, Savannah High and Benedictine punched their tickets to the Final Four
There was big-time basketball pandemonium throughout Savannah, a city known for its hoops tradition, on Wednesday night as three boys teams punched their tickets to the state semifinals with Johnson, Savannah High and Benedictine moving on to the GHSA Final Four.
Fans were trying to keep abreast of all the action at the packed gyms keeping up with social media, texts and phone calls -- while keeping their eyes glued to the court in front of them to enjoy the drama.
Johnson had one of its strongest performances of the season as the Atom Smashers beat visiting Hebron Christian 57-50. Savannah High rallied from an eight-point deficit in the final minutes to down Darlington 53-49, and Benedictine's matchup with visiting Seckinger went to overtime, with the Cadets prevailing 65-58.
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Johnson 57, Hebron Christian 50
In his fourth season leading the Atom Smashers, coach Chuck Campbell saw his squad break through to reach the Final Four after being knocked out in the quarterfinals the last three years.
Johnson, which entered the playoffs unranked, looked strong from the start as they took a 22-11 lead after the first quarter against Hebron Christian squad ranked No. 6 among Class 3A teams by Sandysspiel.com.
Junior Favion Kirkwood had 27 points and seven rebounds, while senior Josh Quarterman had 13 points, four rebounds, four steals and three assists. Senior Cormari Jones had 13 points with five assists and three rebounds, without committing a turnover.
Johnson (19-11) will be in town as the Atom Smashers face Dougherty (23-7) in a Final Four matchup set for 7 p.m. Saturday at Savannah State.
"Hebron Christian is tough, but our defense was tougher tonight," Campbell said. "The guys all know I'm a Savannah State graduate, and I told them I wanted them to set up a homecoming for me this weekend at my school. They said they would and they kept their promise."
Campbell was impressed with the contributions from his Big Three of Quarterman, the Region 3-3A Player of the Year, along with Kirkwood and Jones.
"Everyone knowns about Quarterman -- they have to pay so much attention to him that it opens up doors for his teammates," Campell said. "He held his own on defense and after his monster dunk in the fourth quarter, I knew we had it. Favion (Kirkwood) isn't a secret anymore. This is only his fourth year playing, but he studies the game and its a blessing to have him on the team. And I've been preaching to Cormari about taking care of the ball all season, so for him to not have a turnover in this one was huge."
When the playoffs started, Campbell looked at the bracket and talked about a possible matchup with Dougherty, coached by former Savannah High star and Jenkins coach Bakari Bryant, who led the Warriors to a state championship in 2015 with Campbell as his assistant.
The friends consider themselves to be brothers -- they played each other in a the 2022 Joe Green Tournament at Beach High with Campbell and Johnson coming out on top. Now the friends meet again with a berth in the state championship game on the line.
Savannah High 53, Darlington 49
Savannah High's season was in the balance with about four minutes left in the game, as the Blue Jackets trailed by six.
But junior Stephon Fox scored on a layup, made a steal and drove to the basket again, drawing the foul and converting the old-school 3-point play. On the Blue Jackets' next time downcourt, Nayshaun Heyward buried a 3-pointer as Savannah High took a 49-47 lead with 2:15 left and then closed out strong. Deshawn Davis and Jermaine Edwards were also pivotal players.
The packed house at The High was raucous and former Blue Jacket star Chris Cokley, who went on to play at UAB, was on hand to see his alma mater advance to the Final Four for the first time since his his junior year of 2013, when the Blue Jackets lost to Johnson in the Class 3A finals.
It was an all-around team effort as juniors Jermontae Brown and Fox scored nine points each. Their classmate, Maki Joyner, the Region 3A Division I Player of the Year had a team-high 11 points, but was sidelined in the final few minutes with a right ankle injury. He was on crutches after the game, and his status is uncertain for the semifinals.
Savannah High (22-8) will meet up with Paideia (16-12) on Friday at Georgia College & State, with tipoff set for 3 p.m.
"That was a crazy game -- I needed my guys to wake up down the stretch and what stuck out to me was how resilient they were and how they pushed. They responded really well under pressure," said George Brown, a longtime Savannah High assistant now in his first year leading the program. "It was an electric atmosphere tonight, and that's how it's going to be from here on out with our program. It's been a longtime coming, but we really appreciate the support."
Brown said he was impressed with how his players stepped up when Joyner went down, especially Fox, who has battled back from knee surgery to become an impact player this season.
"This is really exciting because I've been putting in so much work," Fox said. "Nobody believed in me except for my people, my family. This was a great win, but we still have work to do."
Joyner said it was tough to watch the end of the game from the bench, but he was proud of how his teammates responded.
"I trusted my boys -- I know they've got my back and I'll always have theirs," Joyner said. "We were locked in on defense and came out on top."
Benedictine 65, Seckinger 58 (OT)
Benedictine hadn't been to the Final Four since 1959, now the Cadets are in the semifinals for the second year in a row under Frank Williams, the veteran coach in his fourth season leading the program.
The Cadets survived in an epic battle with Seckinger, a school in Buford that opened in August 2022.
It was a back-and-forth affair -- and Seckinger had a chance to put the game away when BC was called for a foul with .8 seconds remaining. But the Jaguars missed both free throws and the Cadets pulled away in overtime to win it.
BC (17-7), the No. 2 seed out of Region 3-4A, is set to meet up with Holy Innocents' (25-6) in a Final Four matchup at Fort Valley State on Saturday, with tipoff set for 7 p.m.
Caleb Jones, the star junior guard, had another stellar game for the Cadets with 29 points. Senior La'Don Bryant, headed to Northern Illinois on a football scholarship as a receiver, had 12 points. Senior Houston Jackson scored five, including a 15-foot bank shot to beat the first quarter buzzer and tied the game at 15. Rasean Matthews also played well, hitting a pair of big 3-pointers in the clutch.
"We were up late and didn't execute to close it out like we should have," Williams said. "And Seckinger executed well, until those free throws at the end. Our student section was going ballistic and that might have helped. Then in overtime, we played excellent defense. We were moving our feet and keeping our guys in front of us.
"What impressed me most tonight was our grittiness," Williams said. "The guys never flinched, and there were heroes all around."
North Oconee 78, New Hampstead 58
New Hampstead, the Region 3-4A champion, saw it season come to an end with a loss at North Oconee.
GIAA Semifinals
St. Andrew's, the two-time defending Class 3A state champion, saw its run come to an end in a 56-54 overtime loss to Lakeview Academy at Georgia College & State on Wednesday afternoon.
It was the second straight overtime playoff game for the Lions, who prevailed in a win over Dominion Christian on Saturday. The Lions finished the season with a 22-8 record.
Memorial Day, the defending Class A champion, ended its season in a 45-36 loss to Monsignor Donovan. The Matadors finished with a 13-9 record.
Dennis Knight covers sports for the Savannah Morning News. Contact him at Dknight@savannahnow.com. Twitter: @DennisKnightSMN
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Johnson, Savannah High and Benedictine are still standing in Final Four
