This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Schools

North Gwinnett Sweeps Norcross

Bulldogs knock off the state's top girls team, while boys end eight-year drought against Blue Devils

The North Gwinnett girls did what no other Georgia basketball team has been able to do this season: defeat No. 1 Norcross.

The Bulldogs knocked off the defending Class AAAAA champions Tuesday night, beating the Blue Devils 54-45. The No. 8-ranked North Gwinnett boys made it a sweep with a 62-58 victory in the nightcap, beating Norcross for the first time in eight years. Overall it was a great day for North Gwinnett basketball; the Bulldogs also won both freshman games and both junior varsity games to go 6-0.

The North Gwinnett girls (10-5, 6-0 in Region 7-AAAAA) moved into first place in the region and have now won seven consecutive games. The Lady Bulldogs haven’t lost since dropping a road game to Kendrick in Columbus, a setback that caused a team meeting and a renewed commitment to success.

Find out what's happening in Suwaneewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“We’ll try to stay humble and get better every game,” said North coach Bryan Sellars. “This game will give them the confidence they can play with anyone in the state. It lets us know that no matter who we face, we can play with them.”

Norcross had lost only one game, that coming to a South Carolina team at a tournament in Myrtle Beach. But North has built its season by playing stellar competition that includes the likes of out-of-region foes such as Wesleyan, Campbell and Kendrick. The Bulldogs were not intimidated.

Find out what's happening in Suwaneewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

It didn’t look good for the North girls early. They trailed 11-5 after one period and Norcross had a commanding 21-10 lead late in the first half, when North started to show some life. Lexie Brown hit a 3-pointer and Ariel Johnson made a basket that trimmed the deficit to 21-15 and gave the Bulldogs a fresh sense of purpose for the second half.

North came back and took the lead 25-24 on Johnson’s 3-pointer. The Bulldogs continued to battle and eventually stretched their lead to 10 points (47-37) on a pair of Johnson free throws. North turned back any notion of a comeback attempt by making its free throws (11 of 14), while Norcross made only 13 of 23.

“The past couple of days we’ve had good practices,” Sellars said. “When we walked out of that locker room we were ready, but we may have been too excited. We got back in the game, made a few adjustments at halftime and the shots started falling for us.”

North got 20 points from Brown, who had five 3-pointers, and 17 from Johnson. A decision by Sellars to move Johnson to point and Brown to the wing was the move that helped both players flourish in the battle for first place.

North boys coach Zach Smith threw a new defensive look at Norcross, which helped knock the Blue Devils off their game. North built a 10-point lead in the third quarter, only to see Norcross storm back to tie the game and take a six-point lead.

North never lost its cool and responded with a pair of 3-pointers by Clayton Williams that helped get the Bulldogs back in the game. Williams then hit the go-head 3-pointer with 34 seconds left that gave North the lead for keeps. A.J. Clements made both ends of a one-and-one with 6.2 seconds remaining that iced the victory.

“Big-time players make big-time plays,” Williams said. “I’m thankful that I was able to hit that shot. I had made a couple of mistakes, so I’m glad I was able to make those 3-pointers.”

Williams led the Bulldogs (12-3, 5-1) with 19 points and Clements scored 16. Kwesi Abakah and Cyrus Lavant each added 10 points.

“Our guys played hard,” Smith said. “We played at the end when we had to and hit that big shot at the end. It’s nice to get that monkey off our back.”

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from Suwanee