ATHENS - An important win in Region 8 of the 5A division as No. 5 Eastside barely defeated No. 4 Clarke Central.
It was Clarke Central’s senior night and before the game started all their seniors walked the court with their families and received framed jersey’s with their numbers on them. All of The Gladiators, not just their seniors, were feeling confident before the game based on the crowd and the energy that senior night brought.
This confidence led The Gladiators to an impressive first quarter despite ending it down to The Eagles 13-9. Marcus Gillespie hit a deep, buzzer-beater 3-point shot which increased the enthusiasm of those on Clarke Central’s court and bench alike. That was his second that quarter.
Later in the second quarter, Eastside scored no points allowing The Gladiators to get a lead of 22-13. Again, credit was due towards the 6-foot-2-inch freshman Gillespie, who at this point was the team's lead scorer with 10 points.
Clarke Central continued to hold their lead going into the fourth quarter, with Gillespie having three steals total trying to keep a strong lead. But, Eastside would soon start to get very aggressive. Led by the senior Raje Benton who then had six points, The Eagles did not want to let The Gladiators off-easy.
After some back and forth between both teams and crucial free throw shots from Clarke Central’s Lamar Haynes to keep a lead, the score was 34-31 with 2:29 to go. After a timeout, the cracks of these Gladiators were starting to show. They became very hesitant to shoot, mainly due to Eastside having a tough man-to-man coverage on defense. Clarke Central couldn’t find the open man.
As the game came to just over a minute left, Eastside acquired a 1-point lead from Daylan Dixon hitting a 3-pointer.
But then a crucial foul came in on Clarke Central’s Roderick Jones that sent him to the free-throw line. He was struggling with his 3-point shots on his senior night, making 0-for-6 from the arc. But these free-throw attempts were his redeeming moments on the night he had been waiting on for his entire high school career. The first was a miss, but his second attempt tied the game.
Once the many timeouts and fouls were complete to draw the game out, The Eastside Eagles came out with a win after a deep pass to Raje Benton allowed him to make a layup and lock in their win.
