Lee County basketball tops Dougherty in overtime

ALBANY — Lee County’s Ousmane Kromah scored with just seconds remaining in regulation to send Monday night’s game against Dougherty into overtime, then scored again with five seconds left in overtime to give Lee County a 52-50 win over Dougherty in the MLK Classic at Monroe High School.

“I am really proud of our guys for showing resilience in adverse situations,” said Lee County head coach Kirven Davis. “Everybody is going to bring their best game against us. But we continue to preach togetherness and the willingness to block out distractions.”

The two teams went back and forth all night but Lee County had built a nine-point, 34-25, lead late in the third quarter after a long three from Christian Brown. But moments later Dougherty’s Jacob Stallworth swished a long three and then hit a layup at the buzzer to tie the game 34-34 heading into the final quarter.

The fourth quarter was similar with a three from Brown and then a three from Stallworth with other plays in between as the two teams battled. Dougherty held a 47-45 lead with 37 seconds remaining and Lee County had possession. With only eight seconds remaining on the clock shot Lee County got a break with a foul call that gave them a reset clock with 25 seconds to play with. Kromah scored to tie the game and left Dougherty 11 secs to play. Stallworth’s long three missed and Lee’s DJ Taylor threw a shot up at the buzzer from across half-court that hit the rim and bounced off.

The overtime was again and back and forth affair and again it was Kromah just before the buzzer battling underneath the goal and knocking in the score.

Brown led Lee County with 18 points, followed by Kromah with 12 and Braylon Cheney with eight. Dougherty got 13 points from Stallworth, 12 from Jai’on Burns, and seven each from Kaleke Singletary-Jinks and Jawuan Jinks.

Lee County is now 16-2 on the season and will host Northside of Warner Robins (5-11) Friday night in Leesburg. Dougherty falls to 7-10 on the year and will host Thomasville (9-9) Friday night.

Joe WhitfieldJoeWhitfield[email protected]