DHS Boys, Girls Lose at Buford

Late in Decatur’s boys game Tuesday night, Buford junior A.J. Davis drove the length and laid an old school layup off the backboard, except it wasn’t a layup at all. He purposely banked it hard so 6-8 senior T.J. Shipes, who was trailing Davis, could grab it and emphatically slam it home.

Straight out of Harlem’s Rucker League, the dunk added a definitive coda to a long, painful evening for . The Decatur boys lost 68-49, the girls 69-41.

The loss was particularly stinging for Decatur girls, who’d advanced to fifth in this week’s Coaches Poll (they remain sixth in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Poll). Decatur had lost by only four to Buford (fourth in the Coaches, third in the AJC Polls) back on Jan. 6.

But the return of Andraya Carter, last year’s AA Player of the Year who, until four games ago had missed the entire season because of a torn ACL, makes this a much different Buford team.

The Lady Bulldogs opened a 19-11 lead three minutes into the second quarter. But when Buford coach Gene Durden switched from man-to-man full-court pressure to an all-out blitz of a 1-2-2 press, the pace of this game was taken to another gear.

“This is where Andraya makes such a big difference for us,” Durden said. “I can put her in front [of the press] or in the back, but either place she’s going to wreak havoc.”

Which she did. Though Carter finished with only eight points, she seemed to cover the entire floor defensively, making steals, deflections and holding Decatur’s Queen Alford to only three second-half points.

“There’s no question that Andraya changes their team entirely,” said Decatur coach Bill Roberts. “The solidarity she brings to that team is crucial.”

Buford scored the last nine points of the first half and didn’t slow down after intermission, outscoring the Bulldogs 42-14 in the second half.

Many of those Buford points came off turnovers created by the press – Decatur had 35 turnovers for the night. The Bulldogs kept funneling the ball down the sideline and getting trapped, or throwing long floating passes that were easy picking for Carter and company.

Further, even when Bulldogs finally got into halfcourt it usually took eight or nine seconds alone to clear midcourt, and the effort proved draining: Decatur shot only 31 percent (14 of 45) from the field. Decatur also made only 8 of 18 at the foul line (44 percent) while Buford hit 21 of 24.

How good is Buford?  Consider that their backup post, Emily Adams, has signed a Division I scholarship with Wagner University. She came off the bench to score 15 points, while Kaela Davis led all scorers with 25.

Queen Alford had 16 on 5 of 21 shooting. Jordan Dillard had 15 points, eight of those coming in the game’s first six minutes.

The Lady Bulldogs are 19-4 while Buford’s 14-7, but six of those losses have come against teams ranked in the nation’s top 20, and five have come against out-of-state competition.

The Decatur boys also started strong and trailed only 32-27 one minute into the third quarter. But Buford’s pressure, like its girls team, proved overwhelming.

Buford went on a 16-7 third quarter tear to put it away, with guard Kyle Kellam scoring 12 of his game-high 20 points in the third, mostly off steals.

“The key,” said Decatur coach Charlie Copp, “is that you have to take care of the basketball. The points they got off turnovers tonight was ridiculous.”

Kurt Robinson scored 12 for Decatur, while Davnate Meadows and Cordele Jackson added 10 apiece, but on this night only Cordele received special praise from his coach.

“Cordele played great,” Copp said, “He guarded hard, played hard, shot well and was by far the standout player for us tonight.”

Decatur is now 11-12 while sixth-ranked Buford is 17-5. Decatur plays its final regular-season home game Friday against Greater Atlanta Christian, the boys at 7:30 p.m., the girls at 6 p.m. on Senior Night.

Note: With 5:59 left in the second quarter of the girls game, Buford’s 6-3 junior MacKenzie Darrah hit the floor hard on a rebound scramble with Jordan Dillard falling on top of her. For the next few minutes, with the nearly-packed house mostly silent, Darrah screamed in pain before she was helped off the court. Durden said later that she was taken to the hospital with a dislocated right hip.

“I can’t say anything right now because we just don’t know how bad it is,” he said. “I’m praying it sounded a lot worse than it really was. I’m just thankful we had our training and medical staff here to stabilize her, or I would’ve freaked out. This is my 24th year coaching, and I’ve only seen something similar to that three or four other times.”