MACON -- All week leading up to the championship game, JR Leonard has been oozing confidence, telling his teammates they were going to win the school’s first state basketball championship.
On Friday night, thanks largely to Leonard’s efforts, Riverwood knocked off defending champion and No. 1-ranked Alexander 67-63 in overtime to win the Class 6A championship at the Macon Coliseum.
And it was Leonard, an uncommitted junior, who dropped in the second of two free throws with 10.5 seconds remaining to put the Raiders over the top. Leonard went 19-for-23 at the line and finished with 31 points – the most scored by a boy in the six state championships played this week -- and had five rebounds.
“He’s been telling us all week that we were going to win,” Riverwood coach Buck Jenkins said. “He’s one of those positive-affirmation kids and he believed. It’s hard not to believe in a kid when he believes in himself that much.”
Credit: Stan Awtrey
Credit: Stan Awtrey
Riverwood (25-7) also got 17 points, 12 rebounds and four assists from Vanderbilt signee Karris Bilal, and nine rebounds from veteran Calvin Lindsey, who Jenkins said, “had contributions that don’t show up in the box score.”
Alexander (29-3) was led by Braedan Lue, a 6-foot-6 forward who has signed with Kennesaw State. Lue scored 26 points with 13 rebounds and two blocked shots and was a mismatch every time he got the ball down low.
Alexander also got 15 points and nine rebounds off the bench from Chris Hutchinson and 10 points from Gregory Dunson.
Click here to see the official box score.
Alexander got off to a fast start, taking a 12-1 lead, only to have Riverwood creep back into the game when Leonard kept going to the line. Leonard was 9-for-10 on free throws in the first quarter, which prevented Alexander from running away with it.
“We knew we had to weather the storm,” Jenkins said. “We knew they were coming back, that they had a championship pedigree, so we expected it. We knew if we just came back and did the things we’d been doing all year that we’d give ourselves a chance to win.”
Bilal got hot in the second quarter with seven points and the Raiders drew to within 29-26 when Leonard nailed a jumper at the horn. Leonard scored 17 points in the first half.
Riverwood took the lead, 32-31, on a drive by Leonard to complete a 6-0 run and the game was tied 39-39 with 2:50 left in the third. Alexander’s Lue scored two baskets near the rim and gave the Cougars a 43-39 lead going into the final quarter.
Credit: Stan Awtrey
Credit: Stan Awtrey
Riverwood eventually tied the game at 55 and again 57-57 with 1:04 left. Both teams had a chance to win in the final minute but came up empty, sending it to overtime.
“Once we got to overtime, we knew we were going to win,” Jenkins said.
Riverwood scored the first six points in OT, only to have Alexander close the gap to one point on Lue’s driving layup with 34 seconds remaining. Riverwood’s Kaleb Bilal, Karris’s younger brother, scored his only two points on a pair of free throws with 19.8 seconds left to stretch the lead to three.
Alexander missed a 3-pointer to tie and the ball went out of bounds. Leonard was fouled after the ball was put into play and hit the clinching free throw.
It was not an easy road for Riverwood. The Raiders stumbled in the Region 4 tournament and emerged as the No. 4 seed, forcing them to play all their games away from home. Riverwood beat No. 3 Lee County, Evans, Woodstock and Jonesboro to reach the final.
“We’ve been through a lot of adversity this year and we fought back,” Jenkins said. “The kids believed in each other. That’s what high school sports is all about.”
The win was also the first championship for the popular Jenkins, who just completed his 15th season at the Sandy Springs school.
Credit: Stan Awtrey
Credit: Stan Awtrey
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