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By Nolan Imsande

FORT VALLEY —The Cinderella story that was the Westover High School boys basketball team came to a close Friday night and it couldn’t have been more heart-breaking.

The Patriots fell 54-52 to Grady in the quarterfinals of the Georgia High School Association Class AAAA state tournament at Fort Valley State.

After trading leads late, the teams were tied at 52. With 7.9 seconds left, Grady had the ball coming out of a timeout. The Knights put the ball in the hands of star guard Avi Toomer who drove underneath the basket and hit a reverse layup as time expired to give Grady a 54-52 victory.

“We knew they were going to get the ball to (Toomer),” Westover coach Dallis Smith said. “I wanted to try and trap him but he made a move to the baseline and we didn’t cut him off.”

It was a struggle offensively for both teams early. The basket seemed to have a lid on it until Grady made the first bucket almost three minutes into the game. The Patriots’ offense struggled for the entire first quarter with the lone field goal coming from Jacobi Cratic more than four minutes into the game. Grady led 12-4 at the end of the first quarter.

Sharpshooter Jordan Brown kickstarted the Westover offense in the second quarter.

The freshman nailed a three for the Patriots’ second basket of the game. Brown knocked down two more in the second, including one that gave his team a 23-22 lead just before halftime.

Westover held the Bucknell-bound Toomer to zero points in the first half.

The Westover offense seemed to disappear again in the third quarter. Grady was able to build a 38-30 lead before Kris Gardner hit a bucket with six seconds left to make it a 38-32 game after three.

The Patriots opened the fourth with four quick points to make it a two-point game. A putback by Cratic cut the score to 41-40.

Eight straight points from Allec Williams helped Westover build a 48-41 lead. The highlight was a layup followed by a steal on the inbounds pass where Williams hit another layup.

“We fought and that is all you can ask for from the kids,” Smith said. “We were up by six or seven and we didn’t take advantage of that.”

Toomer was held in check for most of the game until the final two minutes. He scored the Knights’ final six points of the game including the winner.

“It is tough especially for our seniors,” Smith said. “To go through all the adversity we went through and get here to the end and fight like we did … as you saw, we had opportunity and chance to win the game.”

Williams led all scorers with 17 points while Jordan Brown dropped 10.

Grady was led by Javier Russell who scored 15 and DJ Brittian who added 10.

The Patriots also lost on a last-second shot Columbia two years ago in the semifinals.