On Saturday, the Holy Innocents Golden Bears and Hebron Christian Lions boys basketball teams faced off for the Georgia High School Association Class 1A Private Region 5 championship and number one seed for the state championship tournament. The lions would start off with an early 6-0 lead and but Holy Innocents would outscore them 13-5 down the stretch to take a 13-11 lead at the end of the opening period.
In the second quarter, the Golden Bears would open up the period on a 7-0 run to go up 20-11 but Hebron would respond with a 9-0 run to tie the game 20-20 before Holy Innocents closed out with 25-20 lead at the half time break. The Golden Bears would dominate in the third quarter, opening up the period on a 9-3 run and eventually outscoring the Lions 12-8 in the period.
Holy innocents would see their largest lead come in the fourth quarter when when a Landon Kardian (16 points) would give the Golden Bears a 15 point lead as they led 45-30. However, the Lions would dig deep and coming roaring back outscoring Holy Innocents 21-8 and would trail 53-51 with :46 seconds to go in the fourth quarter. With time not on their side, the Lions would be forced to foul Holy Innocents players on multiple occasions sending them to the line and they would fall 56-51 to Holy Innocents.
Following the game, when asked what he told his guys during the timeout following Hebron's run that cut the Golden Bears lead down from 15 points to two, Holy innocents head coach Mario Mays said he told his players to "continue to compete," adding, "I owe it all to these kids. They have worked and stayed together through the good and the bad, especially through COVID." The Golden Bears were one of the many teams that had to quarantine due to exposure to COVID-19 but Coach Mays said his players continued to excite by how they played "for each other." When asked about preparing for the state tournament, Coach May stated that "improving on their defense" would be "core" for them regardless of what type of defensive set they were in. "Defensively we have to continue to play together and offensively, to motion and move the ball and just continue to be a team."
