Gone in 100 seconds: Africentric storms past Pirates in regional
Garaway junior Brady Roden and company found the sledding pretty tough against an athletic, quick and talented Africentric team in the Div. III regionals in Athens. Led by star Dailyn Swain, pictured here defending Roden, Africentric had a monster start to the second half and blew open a tightly contested game to defeat the Pirates 61-48.
For the first half of Garaway’s Div. III Athens regional contest with mighty Africentric, the Pirates went toe to toe with the Nubians and put themselves in position to win.
Then in 90 seconds Africentric came storming out of the locker room to begin the third quarter and rushed to a 61-48 win that ended the Pirates’ fantastic season.
However, Garaway head coach Terry Rowe looked at the loss not as the end of something special, but the beginning of something even greater.
The two teams started the game by trading punches. Garaway found plenty of success by driving hard to the hole, with Logan Yoder and Alexander Roden paving the way for the Pirates to tie things at 10-all, while national college recruit Dailyn Swain mastered a trey and added a thundering dunk for the Nubians.
Africentric took a momentary four-point edge, but the Pirates answered on Yoder’s and-one and Brady Roden’s steal and feed to Jenson Garber for a lead, until another monster dunk by Swain gave Africentric a 16-15 lead through one.
Wagner banked in an accidental trey to begin the second quarter and Swain added yet another dunk to quickly build a six-point lead, but Garaway showed resiliency on a Jarrett Wallick score inside and Brady Roden’s two free throws.
Drew Mullet would draw the pirates to within one at 23-22, but Swain scored twice inside. Garaway milked the clock for a last shot for the final 55 seconds, and Yoder made that call by Rowe look exceptional when he stroked a long 3-pointer to close out the half with Garaway trailing just 27-26.
The Pirates accomplished something huge in the half, proving they could hang with the ultra-athletic Nubians.
“I thought our kids were committed and believed they were going to walk down here and compete,” Rowe said. “A lot of these kids were in middle school and elementary when they saw us come down here four years ago. We were focused in, but unfortunately the season had to end.”
Then came the start of the second half that changed all of that.
In a furious 90-second spurt, Swain hit a pull-up jumper, Wagner scored on a steal, the Josiah Smith drove for two and took an outlet pass and delivered a thunderous dunk. Stunningly, a one-point lead was at nine at 35-26, and Garaway never recovered.
“That third quarter, they came out with a statement,” Rowe said. “The first three minutes their athleticism caused us some problems. And that five minutes in the third quarter was the best defense we have seen them play all year.”
For Africentric head coach Michael Bates, making adjustments at the half was the turning point to the game. Garaway’s guards were having success blitzing past the Nubians defenders, and Bates said the halftime adjustment was simple but effective.
“We wanted to pick them up further back in the backcourt,” Bates said. “I thought in the first half we let them get really comfortable. They got to walk the ball across half-court. That wasn’t our game plan at all. We were able to speed them up a little bit in the backcourt and take them out of their offensive flow. They had such a great flow that first half.”
Bates said Garaway got to the spots it wanted in the first half. He told his players that wasn’t going to happen in the second half.
“You let that team run their offense flawlessly like they did early, and we were allowing them to do, they are going to get good shots,” Bates said. “They can all shoot it, but the Roden brothers and Yoder were getting to the rim whenever they felt like it. In the second half, we talked about backing off a step defensively and keeping them in front of us. Instead of crowding, we gave them an arm-length and cut off the dribble-penetration, and that allowed us to get out in transition much better.”
The Pirates did settle in, getting seven points in the quarter from Alexander Roden, but Smith, silent in the first half, played a key role in keeping the lead at 41-33 heading into the final quarter.
Garaway got a little momentum to start the final quarter when Brady Roden scored on a put-back, but Swain’s and-one and Smith’s score on a pair of free throws helped pushed the lead back to 12 at 47-35.
Mullet hit another trey on a nice pass from Sam Page, but Swain would give the Nubians all the momentum they needed with one more soul-crushing dunk. Garaway would get no closer than nine point the rest of the way and had to settle for a regional runner-up trophy.
“It’s fun to come to OU,” Rowe said. “We haven’t been here since 2018. I am proud of what our two seniors gave us this year in terms of leadership.”
As for inspiring his team toward even greater things next season, Rowe said this type of success is more than just about what this group of players — with Garaway boasting a starting five of all juniors — can do with it.
“Even bigger, we have a group of junior high and elementary boys who didn’t remember the last time we have been down here,” Rowe said. ‘Now they got to experience that. They got to see their high school idols perform on the court and hopefully, they are saying, ‘I want to be like that.’ I know they will commit and improve those skills they need to improve on to get back here.”
Yoder and Alexander Roden led Garaway with 16 and 15 points, respectively, while Mullet added nine on three triples and Brady Roden chipped in with four. Swain proved every bit the challenging talent he was reported to be, clocking in with 30 points, including four dunks, adding a game-high nine rebounds and three assists with a pair of blocks. Smith and Wagner added 13 and 11 points, respectively.