By Shannon Fagan, WEIS Sports Director
CENTRE – A crowd of Gaylesville basketball fans awaited senior shooting guard Kyler Bradley outside of the locker room while he was doing an interview with a reporter. When Bradley finished, he approached the crowd, which doused him with water in celebratory fashion.
It’s not every day the Trojans defeat archrival Cedar Bluff, much less in the Cherokee County Tournament semifinals. But that’s exactly what happened on Friday night.
Behind Bradley’s game high 29 points and four steals, three rebounds, an assist and a block, Gaylesville was able to clinch its first county championship berth since 1988 with a 49-43 victory in overtime.
Saturday will be the eighth known championship game appearance for Gaylesville (10-15). They’ll take on one of the tournament’s stalwart winners, the Spring Garden Panthers, at 7 p.m. in Richard Lindsey Arena.
Gaylesville and Spring Garden have never met in a boys championship game.
The Trojans have won just three county championship games, with the last coming in 1988 against Sand Rock 78-64 under former head coach Tommy Lewis. The other two tournament titles came in 1959 and 1954.
It’s something that’s not lost on Bradley nor his head coach Kolby Brannon.
“To be part of a team that does that feels good,” Bradley said. “We’re always looked at as an easy win, but this year I feel like we’re making people fight. We haven’t beaten Cedar Bluff since I’ve been at Gaylesville. It just feels good to be part of the team that does it. Hopefully it’ll be a recurring thing.”
Brannon, in his second year at Gaylesville, said he “can’t say enough about” Friday’s win.
“It’s so much bigger than me and the guys in there (locker room),” Brannon said. “That’s for the community. It’s for the school. It’s just huge man. I’m getting choked up. We get to go play in the county championship game. It still doesn’t seem real. It’s just huge for those guys.”
Brannon and the rest of the Gaylesville community have Bradley to thank for its rare tournament title appearance. He hit big shot after big shot.
Bradley’s 3-pointer with 20 seconds remaining gave the Trojans a 40-38 advantage, but Cedar Bluff tied the game on a basket inside the paint by junior forward Isaac Bishop, which ultimately forced overtime.
Bradley was fouled 39 seconds into overtime and was sent to the free-throw line where he made both shots. Less than a minute later, he banked in a 3-pointer – his fourth and final trey of the game – to extend the Trojan lead to 45-40.
A made free throw by Kadin Fife and another basket by Bishop cut Gaylesville’s lead to 45-43, but a pair of free throws each by the Bradley brothers – Kuper and Kyler – in the final 12.6 seconds provided the final margin.
Kyler Bradley was 9-of-10 from the free-throw line for the game.
“There’s been times where I want to choke him, but in the big moments we give him the ball and he just makes stuff happen,” Brannon said of Kyler Bradley. “He’s a special athlete, a special player. He puts in the work and deserves every bit of this.”
While free-throw shooting was big for Bradley, it was quite the opposite for Cedar Bluff. As a team, the Tigers were just 6-of-20 for the game.
“We shot ourselves in the foot again,” Cedar Bluff coach Johnny Amison said. “Almost every night, we’re probably not going to be the best shooting team on the court, especially from the outside. We have to try and play inside out. We just didn’t get enough on the inside today. We couldn’t put the ball in the basket. We were getting what we wanted, but we just couldn’t finish.
“If you let teams that shoot better than you stick around, at some point they’re probably going to make some shots. Give Kyler a lot of credit. He’s a senior and he didn’t want to let them lose.”
Eli McFry topped the Tigers with 11 points, including a pair of 3-pointers. Bishop tossed in 10 points. Fife had seven points. Kolwyn Morrison and Hunter Stallings finished with six and five points apiece. Morrison’s points came on a pair of treys.
Kuper Bradley added eight points, six assists, five steals and four rebounds for the Trojans. Caden Angle finished with five points, 13 boards, two blocks, an assist and a steal.
With a historic win behind them, the Trojans are hoping for more history on Saturday against top-seeded Spring Garden.
“No matter what happens tomorrow night, we’re playing with house money,” Brannon said. “We have nothing to lose. We kind of played that way tonight.”
“I’m just thankful we get to play for it,” Kyler Bradley added. “We’ll come out, hustle our butts off and see what it does for us.”
Spring Garden 61, Cherokee County 45
CENTRE – Jake Welsh scored 24 points and grabbed 16 rebounds, while John Welsh tossed in 18 points to lead the top-seeded Spring Garden Panthers to a 61-45 victory over the Cherokee County Warriors on Friday.
Cole Bailey connected on three treys and finished with 15 points for the Panthers (16-3), who advance to meet Gaylesville on Saturday at 7 p.m. in the Cherokee County Tournament championship game.
Eli Martin topped the Warriors with 19 points, including 15 in the fourth quarter with three 3-pointers. Jacob Cornejo came away with 10 points. Keyshawn Woods tossed in eight points and Reid Jacoway finished with five points.
Spring Garden built an 18-10 lead at the end of the first quarter and held a 27-15 advantage at halftime. The Panthers pushed their lead to 39-24 after three quarters.
