U-SAVE IT CLASSIC: Dralandius Davis wins it for Dougherty

ALBANY — Dralandius Davis was a hard man to find after Dougherty’s Monday night game against Statesboro. Not because he had escaped to the locker room early, but because he was at the bottom of a pile of Trojans.

Davis had just hit the game-winner for Dougherty, capping a double-digit comeback and giving them a 66-64 victory over Statesboro in the late game Monday night of the U-Save It Classic Christmas Tournament at the Archie Arena at Albany High School.

After the shot, an impromptu dog pile ensued on the court.

The Trojans trailed for most of the first half and were down 38-26 going into the half. Ty Randolph and his Trojans went to a full court trap to mount a comeback in the final two quarters.

“There is just a lot of strategy that goes into it,” Randolph said. “I just thought they were very comfortable in what they were doing. The way we play it is a matter of speeding them up. I thought once we sped them up a little bit, they got rattled.”

Statesboro led 54-48 after three quarters, but Dougherty mounted a comeback in the fourth. The Trojans took the lead on a David Quimby dunk with a little more than five minutes left in the game. Quimby finished the game with 21 points as did Statesboro’s Miles White.

A trey by White tied the game at 64 with 20 seconds left.

Dontavious Hudson found a wide open Davis on the left side of the key and Davis banked the shot in to win the game.

“I wanted the ball,” Davis said. “Big time players make big time plays at big time moments.”

It was Davis’ second basket of the game.

Charles Porter scored 11 for the Trojans while Terry Lewis and Israel Shead finished with 14 and 12, respectively.

Statesboro’s Michael Salomon finished with 13 points including their first 11 of the game.

Marcus Kirkland had 11 points for the Blue Devils.

Dougherty finishes its part of the U-Save It Classic with a 2:30 p.m. game against Southeast Bulloch on Tuesday. A win would give the Trojans a perfect 3-0 record in the showcase.