As the final seconds ticked away in Saturday’s quarterfinal game in the Region 8-AAAA tournament, all Winder-Barrow High School coach Eli Connell could do was watch.
Connell watched as the final moments slipped away on what had been a memorable season including a subregion championship. Now it had come to a crashing end with an 82-73 loss to fourth seeded Loganville, at home no less.
As Connell made the short walk to the Bulldogg locker room he knew he would have to try and find some words to comfort his players, who would no be going to the state tournament. A postseason which had begun with so much promise had ended with a thud.
“Loganville was just hot,” Connell said. “We knew they could be. We worked on stopping them from penetrating and kicking it out for the three. We didn’t do a good job early. I did think we did a good job fighting back.”
The WBHS coach was not sure if the week layoff from playing ended up being a factor in his team’s performance Saturday.
“You hate to second guess,” Connell said. “We’ll look at our plans and make sure we had them ready. My first feeling is we didn’t, but you have to look at several things.”
After falling behind early, Connell said his team tried to play Loganville’s game noting “they were comfortable doing that while we were not.”
Despite the loss, Saturday’s game saw standout efforts from Jodd Maxey (23 points) and Shun Thurmond (21) points.
Thurmond surpassed 1,500 points Saturday night for his high school career.
With the season coming to an unexpectedly early end, Connell knew it would be a tough scene in the locker room.
“I tried to remind the kids about what we did accomplish,” the coach said. “We were subregion champions. We won the Thanksgiving tournament. The ending was not what we strived for. However, that’s life and that we have to learn to deal with it.”
Connell said he would hold another team meeting this week to discuss the season with the players and re-emphasize what was accomplished.
