All-Albany Final: Merry Acres and Radium Springs will play for conference title

ALBANY — Can the Merry Acres Braves beat Radium Springs again and win it all? That question will be answered Monday in Americus when the Braves play the Panthers for the Deep South Conference basketball championship. Thursday afternoon top-seeded Merry Acres defeated Sumter County 49-34 to advance to the championship game after Radium Springs edged second-seeded Crisp County 45-39.

Radium Springs and Merry Acres played twice during the regular season with the Braves taking wins in both games.

Thursday afternoon Mikel Roberts drilled a three-pointer midway through the first quarter and Merry Acres opened up a 10-0 lead to start the game against Sumter County. Sumter County countered with a tough, full-court press, but after a few miscues, the Braves began navigating through the press and pushing their lead forward.

Merry Acres led 27-13 at the half and 35-23. Sumter County pushed back and closed to within seven in the fourth quarter but the Braves forced turnovers and put in points to stay in front through out the game.

Roberts led the Braves in scoring with 15 points, Kaden Taylor scored 12 and Dontrell Walton added six.

The Radium Springs game was a back-and-forth affair where the winner wasn’t decided until Brevin Ball swished a long three-pointer with 33 seconds left to give the Panthers a 41-36 lead.

Radium led 6-0 early in the game but Crisp County’s full-court press caused some Panther turnovers and the two teams were tied 8-8 at the end of the first quarter.

The Panthers led 22-19 at the half but Crisp County opened the third quarter with seven unanswered points to lead 26-21. Radium Springs bounced back however, and took a 29-28 lead when Isaiah Rivers drilled a long three-pointer late in the quarter.

The game was tied 34-34 with 1:33 remaining when Rodriquez Martin battled for two points underneath the basket. Jherel Gibson followed with a basket on an inbounds play to make it 38-34 but Sumter County responded. That’s when Ball hit the three-pointer to ice the game.

Gibson led the Panthers with 20 points, Rivers scored 14, and Jayden Richardson added seven.

The Deep South Conference championship game is scheduled for Monday in Americus at the old Sumter County High School gymnasium. The girl’s championship between Sumter County and Crisp County will tip-off at 5:00 p.m. with the Merry Acres vs. Radium Springs game to follow.

By Joe WhitfieldJoeWhitfield[email protected]