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Corey Richie
The Stephens County Indians crafted their first win of the basketball season in thrilling fashion last week in Elberton. The Indians fought and clawed their way to a 68-67 triumph over Elbert County at The Inferno on Tuesday, Dec. 14.
“This is great,” SCHS assistant coach Chris Colwell said (Colwell filled in for head coach Jeremy Hughes who was suspended one game for being ejected in the previous game). “Anytime you can come into the Inferno and get a victory, it’s special down here. This means a lot to get the first victory and here’s a shout-out to our fans that drove down to Elberton. They really made this place rockin’ tonight,” Colwell said. “Can’t say enough. The boys played hard. They went through their little struggles but stepped up and made the big plays,” Colwell said.
One of the players that stepped up and had a big play during the end of the game was Indian freshman Cornelius Curry. Curry hit the go-ahead floater with time winding down for the Indians. After the big shot SCHS had a big defensive stop to secure the win.
“I was just like, please let that thing go in... ecstatic. Hurry up, get back. We don’t need to give them an easy layup. Then Cam (Lacy) made them fumble it. It was even better,” Colwell said.
Corey Richie was the leading scorer in the Indian victory as he torched the nets for 22 points.
Tyrece Mackie added 15 points for the Indians while teammate Aaron Scott finished the game with 11 points. Before the game started there was some drama. Stephens County was assessed a technical foul before the game started due to a dunk in warmups. The Blue Devils started off the game at the free-throw line where Kane Hughes hit one of two technical foul shots to take an early lead. After his free throw, Elbert got the first possession of the game but the Indians got the ball back and got a bucket from Cam’ron Lacy. From that point on it was a back-and-forth, tightly contested quarter. When the first eight minutes of play ended, the Indians held a 17-16 lead.
The seesaw game continued throughout the second quarter. This time it was the Blue Devils that held the upper head at the end of the first half with a 32-31 advantage. The tight game continued when the Indians took a 55-50 lead headed into the fourth period. Late in the final quarter, Indian Corey Richie picked up a loose ball and scored a layup to put his team up 63-62 with 2:30 remaining in the game. Richie recorded another two-point basket to extend the Stephens lead before Elbert hit two free throws to whittle the Indian lead to 65-64.
After that, SCHS was playing keep away from Elbert to wind down the clock. The Devils fouled the Indians and fouled them again to stop the clock with 36 seconds left. A Blue Devil player attempted to steal the ball but was called for a reaching foul. Elbert fouled again to stop the clock, but this time the Indians were in the bonus sending Richie to the line for a one-and-one situation. He missed.
After the shot, a loose ball occurred with the two teams scrambling for possession before the ball went out of bounds. The officials ruled the Indians retained possession and A.J. Russell of SCHS was fouled soon afterward. Russell went to the line and made his first attempt but the second one was off the mark extending the Indian advantage to 66-64. Elbert got the rebound off Russell’s miss with Jamil Burton driving the lane to score a layup while getting fouled. Burton made the free throw to complete a three-point play and put Elbert up 67-66 with 16.6 seconds left. With time winding down, Lacy drove left to the rim then jumped. While in mid-air he dumped the ball off to Curry and Curry sent a floater that swished into the net.
“It feels good,” Curry said. “I was like please let it go in. It felt amazing,” he said.
After the clutch bucket to put SCHS up 68-67, Lacy forced a loose ball and the Indians held on to the win. The first win of the year improved the Indians record to 1-10.
The Indians will return to action when they face Elbert County yet again at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 28 in the Border War Christmas tournament hosted by SCHS at Currahee Arena.