Kurt Robinson’s inspired second-half play fueled the Decatur boys to a 45-40 upset over Woodward Academy Tuesday in the final of game of the Decatur Thanksgiving Classic.
Woodward, now 3-1, came into this week ranked fifth in AAA basketball polls. The victory almost assures the Class AA Bulldogs a top 10 ranking in next week’s poll.
Decatur’s Region 6-AA already has Buford, Greater Atlanta Christian and South Atlanta occupying three of the state’s top five slots.
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Meanwhile, Decatur’s girls were never seriously challenged in their 49-39 win over Woodward. Queen Alford had 27 points and 11 rebounds, while junior Jordan Dillard added 19 points.
The win was also the 200th for Decatur coach Bill Roberts, now in his 11th year overall and second at Decatur.
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The boys won despite enduring a major drought of only 10 points scored over a 13:47 span from late in the first quarter until midway through the third. After a Woodward free throw with 3:48 left in the third the visitors had a seemingly insurmountable 30-18 lead.
“We called a timeout and decided to change things up,” Decatur coach Charlie Copp said. “They are a big physical team that denies you and gets right in your face, so we decided to go smaller, to go quicker and get more motion.”
What he really did was turn the ball over to Robinson who scored 12 of his game-high 14 points in the final 10:35. He also had 11 rebounds for the second straight night and dished out three assists.
None was bigger than a nifty no-look pass to Desmond Tuft who nailed a three with 4:52 left to tie matters at 33. With 4:08 left Robinson missed on a spin move, grabbed his own rebound, scored, was fouled and converted an old-fashioned three-pointer.
That gave Decatur its first lead (36-33) since late in the first quarter.
Woodward climbed within one, but Davante Meadows hit a right-corner three with 3:04 left, making it 39-35.
Decatur, now 3-0, shot 16 of 42 (38 percent) from the field, but hit 6 of 10 three pointers while holding Woodward to a mere two field goals in the second half.
The Bulldogs get a week off before playing at Grady in a 7 p.m. game next Tuesday.
