Central boys, Columbus girls win Shaw Group A championships

The situation was not optimal for Central in the championship game of the boys Group A bracket in the Shaw Christmas Tournament.

It was the team's ninth game in 12 days. And after Justyn Ross returned from an injury sustained during the football season for the first time on Monday, the sophomore re-injured the same knee on the Red Devils' first possession of the game on Wednesday night.

But despite the adversity, Central showed coach Bobby Wright a lot.

"I thought they showed a lot of heart," he said after the game. "Things didn't look good early, but this is a tough group."

Central rebounded from the early trouble to pull out a 74-71 win over Shaw to capture the tournament title. The Red Devils carried a 14-point lead into the half and made a number of clutch free throws down the stretch to withstand a late run by Shaw.

Tre Todd led the team with 20 points in the game, followed by Jermond Williams' 11 and Quan Weaver's 10. Shaw picked 18 from Kourtney Shakespeare and 17 from Dakeen Diaz.

Eight of Shakespeare's points came in the waning seconds of the ballgame. He knocked down a shot to cut Central's lead to 72-63 with 52 seconds left, hit a three to make it 73-66 with 20 seconds left and another from long range to make it 73-69 inside of 10 seconds.

It was just a little too late for the Raiders to climb out of the hole they had dug earlier in the game.

The tournament win ended a long stretch of games over the past 12 days for Central, and gave Wright cause to believe his squad has a chance to have a lot of success in the second half of the season.

"We've been playing some good teams, and we've been executing," he said. "We're picking it up, playing a little better and after the hol

idays we should be playing pretty good ball."

He didn't have much information on Ross, other than that it was the same knee he had injured in football and that he was told there had been no "pop" to signify structural damage.

"He said it gave on him a little bit," Wright said. "We're going to be cautious. We're not going to play him again until he gets checked out, and, who knows, we'll just have to see. We're going to be cautious with him."

COLUMBUS 67, CARVER 61

In the final moments of a frantic finish to a game that had been within 10 points from the start, the Lady Blue Devils looked to three players to seal the deal.

Tatyana Wyatt scored eight points in the final quarter and Ariyah Copeland had six. Brittany Floyd had six points and one tricky steal from behind. The result was a 6-0 run in the final 57 seconds to close out a 67-61 win to earn the championship in the girls group A bracket.

The win was a big deal, coach Joe Cherrone said, but he also offered a word of caution to his team, which was forced into a handful of mistakes by Carver's relentless pressure defense throughout the game.

"We can go a lot of places, but we've got to be mentally tough," he said. "We've got a target on our back. Ninety percent of this is mental, and we just have to slow down and be smart."

Carver did a good job all game of forcing Columbus into its pace, which is very up-tempo. Cherrone said his team needed to make sure it slowed the game into its half-court offense rather than being forced to a higher speed than it likes.

Copeland finished with a game-high 25 points for Columbus, followed by Wyatt's 24.

Floyd had 10 points in the game, as well. For Carver, Alexis Burns led the way with 22, while Alycia Reese added 12.

Wednesday at the Lumpkin Center

Boys

Central 24 18 13 19--74

Shaw 18 10 19 24--71

Central (74)

Tre Todd 20, Jermond Williams 11, Quan Weaver 10, Jakes 9, Jackson 9, T. Williams 8, Benton 7.

Shaw (71)

Kourtney Shakespeare 18, Dakeen Diaz 17, Cam Paulding 12, Hicks 9, Parker 9, Knight 4, Brown 2.

Girls

Carver 15 16 11 19--61

Columbus 15 18 14 20--67

Carver (61)

Alexis Burns 22, Alycia Reese 12, Milner 8, Igus 7, Givens 5, Love-Hill 5, Holloway 2.

Columbus (67)

Ariyah Copeland 25, Tatyana Wyatt 24, Brittany Floyd 10, Vasquez 4, Williams 2, Scott 2.

This story was originally published December 23, 2015 at 10:45 PM with the headline "Central boys, Columbus girls win Shaw Group A championships ."