SOUTHPORT — When the smoke cleared on Saturday night after two of the best teams in the state bumped heads. No.1 Lawrence North emerged as the king of Marion County with a 51-46 win over No.3 Lawrence Central.
Led by the magnificent Tony Perkins who finished with 18 points. The Wildcats did crazy work to hold off the surging Bears down the stretch.
Both teams got out of the gate with crazy energy. However, Lawrence Central couldn’t buy a jumper early on. At the end of the first quarter LN was up 13-7. It was surprising that it was that close without LC being able to shoot the rock. Jasen Graves finally connected on a 20-footer to make it 13-9 as they started the second quarter.
It wasn’t until the 6:20 mark that Nijel Pack’s jumper started to fall. He finished with 18 points. But by that time LN’s Omar Cooper Jr., who finished with 10 points, was getting to the rack with ease to extend their lead to 17-11.
All of a sudden Tony Perkins brought the house down with a massive alley-oop dunk and on the very next possession DJ Hughes darn near ripped the rim off of it’s hinges with a monster dunk to put the Wildcats up 21-14.
It seemed like it was about to get out of hand as the momentum swung into North’s Big Body Chevy. However, Dre’ Davis isn’t a Louisville signee for nothing playa. He got hot down the stretch of the first half and at the break North was 23-19 with a very excited crowd watching at Southport.
I’m not sure what was said at the break but Nijel Pack came out on FIYYAHHH!!!! He knocked down a 3-pointer out of the gate to pull to within 1 making it 23-22 LN. The third quarter became the Nijel Pack show as ole boy kept firing that thang.
At the 6:28 mark of the third quarter Dre’ Davis connected to give the Bears their first lead of the night 26-25. Both squads energy was NUTS but Pack was the lead singer in the third quarter. At the end of three LC was up 39-37.
At the 5:02 mark of the fourth it was all knotted up at 42-42 until the homie Omar Cooper Jr. dropped a three-pointer to put the Wildcats up 45-42. LC’s Dre Davis connects to make it 45-44 LC.
With a 1:07 left and everybody and their Uncle LeRoy standing up holding their breath Dre’ Davis gets an And 1 but misses the free throw so it’s now 47-46.
Pack misses a jumper with less than a minute left. Omar Cooper hits one of two free throws to make it 48-46. Tony Perkins then hits another free throw to extend the lead to 49-46. Cooper gets back to the line to close it out with ice water running through his veins as he hits both free throws. What a great game. We’ll see both of these guys in the Sectional championship that’s for sure. Respect to both Lawrence Township schools.
