Jackson, Creekside Battle Back, Defeat Mays 54-50
On Tuesday, the Mays Raiders hosted the Creekside Seminoles on Senior Night. It would be Creekside that would score first courtesy of a put back basket by #20 Sr. Kindu Hamilton to give Seminoles 2-0 lead. Mays would answer back after #25 Jr. Horace Wyatt hit a basket to tie the game with 6:44 to go in the opening quarter. The Raiders would then take a 7-4 lead after #3 Sr. Reo Wright would hit a bank 3-pointer followed by layup by #20 Sr. Clayvon Croom (15 pts) forcing Creekside to use first timeout with 6:01 to go in the first quarter. The game would remain close over the next two minutes as Mays would lead 9-8 but a steal and layup by Wright (11 pts) with 4:10 would give Raiders an 11-8 lead but Creekside’s Hamilton would tie the game at 11-11 with a 3-point basket.
Creekside would regain the lead off a 2-point basket by #24 Jr. Tyson Jackson to make it a 13-11 Seminoles lead with 2:00 to go. The two teams would continue to exchange baskets but it would the Raiders that would close out the first quarter with a 15-13 lead. Both teams would score early in the 3rd quarter but Mays would hold onto a 19-15 lead with 6:20 remaining. After Wyatt drew the shooting foul and made both free throws the Raiders would go up 21-15 with 5:48 to go. The Seminoles would score four unanswered points to make it a 21-19 game but Hamilton would answer back for Mays to lift Raiders back up by 4 leading 23-19 with 3:40 in the first half. Both teams would struggle making shots over their next few possessions but the Seminoles would get a big basket when #5 Sr. Jordan Farmer drew a shooting foul making the 2-point basket and the free throw to complete three point play and make it 24-23 game and Mays would take their 1-point lead into halftime.
As the second half got under way Mays would get first basket of the quarter to go up 26-23 on the ensuing possession, Creeksides #44 would draw a shooting foul and make both free throws to make it a 26-25 Mays lead. The Raiders would then go on a 6-2 run capped by a monster ally oop dunk by Wyatt to lift Mays to a 32-27 lead with 5:12 to go and forcing Creekside to use first timeout of the half. Out of time out Mays would continue their run going up 38-29 with 3:19 remaining as the Seminoles struggled to get anything going offensively. As the quarter continued, Creekside would finally manage to get a few buckets but the Raiders continued to score as well and closed out the quarter leading 44-37.
Mays would be the ones to score first in the final period of play when #21 slammed home the bucket off the Creekside turnover making it a 46-37 game in favor of the Raiders. Creekside would manage to cut the lead down to five points but Wright would hit another 3-pt basket to lift the Raiders back up 49-41 with 4:23 to go in the game. After a few Mays fouls, the Seminoles found themselves only trailing 49-46 with 2:53 remaining in the game but with 1:29 to go, Jackson (22 pts) would hit a layup and draw the foul to make it a one point game as the Raiders led 49-48.
On the Seminoles next possession trailing by two, Farmer would draw the shooting foul and make both free throws to tie game 50-50 with just under 1:00 to go. On the ensuing Mays possession, a Raiders offensive foul would turn the ball back over to Creekside and Jackson would be clutch at the free throw line making both baskets to lift Creekside 52-50 with :37 remaining. On their next possession, the Raiders would get a good look as Wright would launch a 3-point basket that would give the Raiders the lead but the shot came up short as the Seminoles got the rebound and after drawing the foul would go on to win by a final score of 54-50.
