U-SAVE IT CLASSIC: Dougherty boys whip Southeast Bulloch

ALBANY — Dougherty had no problem coming back from a late night in their matchup with Southeast Bulloch Tuesday afternoon in the opening game on the final day of the U-Save It Classic at Albany High School.

A little more than 12 hours after a thrilling win over Statesboro late Monday night, the Trojans beat the Yellow Jackets 66-54.

The game was close throughout the first quarter with Dougherty taking a 15-13 advantage at the end of the first quarter.

Dougherty went on an 11-2 run to close out the second quarter and took a 31-27 lead into the half. The run was started by a David Quimby dunk.

Quimby finished the game with 22 points, including eight points in the third quarter.

Quimby was the only leading scorer, but Dougherty had five other guys score more than five points.

“I think each guy that came in did an excellent job just playing the system as we saw,” Dougherty coach Ty Randolph said. “We rotate a lot of guys, so it is a tremendous asset for us.”

The Yellow Jackets went on a 6-0 late in the fourth quarter to cut the score to 42-41.

The run prompted Randolph to call a timeout. After the stoppage, the Trojans found their groove and extended the lead to double digits.

They scored 12 more points over the final four minutes to put the game away.

Despite playing the late game Monday night and the early game Tuesday, the Trojans showed no signs of it being problematic.

“With these guys, we have a regiment of what we do,” Randolph said. “A lot of times we practice at 5:30 in the morning and then we will come back in the afternoon…Mentally and physically we prepare them for a quick turnaround.”

Aaron Houston finished with 18 points for Southeast Bulloch. The Yellow Jackets also got 14 points and 13 from Brandon Tremble and Markel Ming respectively.

With the win, the Trojans finished the U-Save It Christmas Classic with a 3-0 record.

Randolph said despite the big weekend, there is still room for improvement.

“You see a lot of bright spots,” he said. “But, as a coach you always see room for improvement. Defensively, we are close, but we are not there. Offensively, we’ve got a world of a ways to go.”

They also beat Cedar Grove on Friday night 58-53.