Georgia Perimeter beats Albany Tech in nail-biter

ALBANY — No matter if its early in the season or deep into the conference schedule, there’s only one way to describe the Albany Tech men’s basketball loss Wednesday night:

Tough.

The Titans and Georgia Perimeter started with a jam and ended with a bang as Albany Tech lost a nail-biting 71-70 contest at the Albany State University HPER Gym.

With about minute left in the game, the Titans took their first lead of the second half after two free throws from Ben Carter. The Jaguars then turned it over on the following possession, but Albany Tech couldn’t capitalize, giving the ball back to GPC with 12.5 seconds left.

Casey Wells drove to the basket for Georgia Perimeter, but he couldn’t finish and a fight for the ball ensued. The Titans would be the last ones to touch and the Jags got one last shot with 0.8 seconds left on the clock.

With barely enough time to blink, Rashon Griggs got the inbound, gathered himself and hit a reverse layup as time expired to give Georgia Perimeter the win.

After the game, Albany Tech head coach Sylvester Patterson admitted he may have outcoached himself calling a timeout before the last play instead of just letting the game play out. Still, he was pleased with what he saw from his team.

“I told them it was great comeback, we just gotta finish the game and we didn’t finish the game on the last play,” he said.

Albany got on the board first with two emphatic dunks and held a slight lead for most of the first half. Georgia Perimeter would fight back and took a 37-35 lead with 3:03 left after a technical was called on the Titans for celebrating after a basket. Georgia Perimeter went on a 6-3 run and ended the half up 43-38.

“We’ve been on him [Carter] all year about that clapping and all of that extra stuff,” Patterson said. “I told him about three games ago ‘man you gone get us a technical in an important game,’ and that’s exactly what happened. I just kinda changed the whole momentum of the game…”

It was an excruciating way to loss especially considering the Titans played a solid game.

The Titans remained patient and overcame several double-digits deficits in the second half. Free throw shooting kept Albany Tech within striking distance late in the game. Brandon Hudson hit 7 of 10 with under 10 minutes to play.

Carter led the Titans in scoring with 19 points, followed by Hudson with 13 and Miles Inman with 11. Hudson led the team in rebounding with 10.

GEORGIA PERIMETER WOMEN 76, ALBANY TECH 42: Wednesday night was one of those games the Albany Tech Lady Titans would like to forget about. Their loss was a lopsided one.

Albany Tech was without one of its leading scorers — Satashala Beasley — while Quiondra Darrienshaw played just 10 minutes in the contest. Both were out due to disciplinary action for violating team rules.

“Even though we had some people out, that’s definitely no excuse for the way we played tonight,” head coach Kenneth Williams said. “We looked like we never played basketball a day in our life.”

Without their offensive anchors, the Lady Titans got off to slow start. A 3-pointer from Kayla Bowens, followed by a jumper from Muneerah Drummond made it a 9-7 game with 12:20 left and that would be as close as Albany Tech would get. They managed to score just three points the remainder of the half and went into halftime down 33-12.

The Lady Titans converted just five of their 33 shots in the first half and were 1-for-10 from behind the arc. Their Nov. 24 matchup against Faith Christian Academy was canceled, meaning before Wednesday, they hadn’t played in nearly two weeks. Williams said this, plus rough practices played a part in their performance.

“We came out real flat,” he said. “We didn’t have any real good days of practice to be honest with you. I definitely thought we would play better once we got into the swing of things in the game, but we just never came around.”

Albany Tech finished shooting 22.5 percent from the field, 14.3 percent from behind the arc and 50 percent from the free throw line. Drummond was the lone double-digit scorer with 13 points. Jenesha Hollin lead the team in rebounding with 14.

Players were visibly frustrated after the game and a long, audibly team discussion took place in the lockeroom. Williams said his team was upset with not just the loss itself, but the way it happened.

“They’re down,” he said. “Everybody’s upset that we lost, specifically the way that we lost. We’re definitely a much better team than what we showed tonight. Hopefully, this is a learning experience. Hopefully they’ll dig deep, show some heart and come back next game and show a great effort.”

The Lady Titans hit the road next Wednesday to take on Atlanta Metro College.