TROY — LaFayette head coach John Woody was stumped.
When asked the last time his squad had 91 points scored on it, he had no definitive answer.
But from now on the veteran coach knows the answer — 91-75 to Clarke County in the South Region tournament at Troy University.
“It’s been a while,” Woody said about the last time his team gave up that many points. “They can play and you have to take your hats off to them and their coaches.
“They were just smooth — I enjoyed playing them and wish we could play them again.”
The hot-shooting Bulldogs of Clarke County had a pair of players crack the 20-point barrier and as a team hit 61 percent of its shots from the floor. They also hits 80 percent (20-of-25) from the foul line. Mike Taite led the way with 28 points and Justin Burroughs added another 23 in the win.
“They’re the best team we’ve played this year,” Woody said. “Their depth really played a big factor and it finally wore us down.
“They came prepared and we weren’t.”
Amazingly, though, LaFayette was right in the game until Clarke County hit a 14-2 run late in fourth quarter to ice the game.
Despite appearing to dominate the first half, Clarke County led by just 10 at halftime and was only able to stretch the lead to 16 two scores into the fourth period.
LaFayette then hit its big run of the game.
The Bulldogs got on an 8-2 burst to cut into the lead and Tobius Ray put back a missed 3-pointer from Ma’Quirus Burton while being fouled less than a minute later. His free throw was good and LaFayette was suddenly trailing by just 5 points, 74-69 with 4:53 to play.
But Burroughs answered back with a 3-point play of his own for Clarke County to take back the momentum.
LaFayette then had a pair of turnovers, both resulting in easy buckets for Clarke County to make it an 81-69 game.
The Bulldogs never threatened again.
“We just started throwing it away all of a sudden — trying to make those incredible, no-look passes,” Woody said. “You can’t do that with a team as quick as they were.”
The loss puts an end to a strange season for LaFayette. The Bulldogs finished the year with a 5-23 record. But 12 of those losses came via forfeit just before their Area tournament due to an ineligible player.
“I tell these kids, ‘You’re going to have hardships in life in general. You take advantage and let the hardships be a plus for you instead of a negative,’” Woody said. “We were able to do that right up until the last game.”
Ray led LaFayette with 20 points and pulled down 8 rebounds. Antoine Heard chipped in another 16 points and also had 8 rebounds.
tpeavy@oanow.com | 737-2568
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