On Friday, the Kell Longhorns and Wheeler Wildcats boys basketball teams would face for the third time this season in the Georgia High School Association Class 6A Region 6 championship game. During the regular season, the Wildcats won both games but the margin of victory in each win would be by three points or less, including one of the games going to overtime. Not to be outdone, Friday's game between the two would need two overtime periods to decide a winner and region champ, and for Kell, it would be lucky number three for them, as they would pick up the 78-71 win.
However, at the start of the game, it was Wheeler getting off to an impressive start as they would go up by as many as 12 points when they led 18-6 early in the second quarter. The Longhorns would settle in eventually and begin to chop away at the Wildcats' lead and would find themselves only trailing 28-26 at the end of the first half. In the third quarter, Kell's Scoot Henderson (26 points), who started off slow, would really turn things on and seemed to help charge the Longhorns after he hit a pair of back to back baskets. Kell would go up by as many six in the third quarter, but Wheeler would battle and in the fourth quarter, would tie the game and send it into overtime.
In the OT period, both teams had a chance to win the game but neither would capitalize and the game would go into a second OT period, in which the Longhorns would eventually put enough space between them and the Wildcats to pick up the 78-71 win and claim the GHSA 6A region 6 championship and No. 1 seed out of the region for the upcoming state championship tournament. Kell's Jaylen Harris finished with 16 points and Wheeler's Jaheim Hudson led all Wildcats players with 22 points.
Berkmar's Destin Logan pulls up for shot over Archer defenderSam Crenshaw
In other region championship action, the Berkmar Patriots captured the region 7-7A championship with a 53 - 48 overtime win over Archer. The Patriots led by one point at halftime, then held on to survive the Tiger's second half threat. Jermahri Hill led Berkmar with 13 points. Jameel Ridout, Malique Ewin and Destin Logan added 9 points each. Christian Drummer led Archer with 16 points. Berkmar improves to 21-5 and head for the GHSA State Tournament on an 8 game winning streak.
