The Apalachee High School boys basketball team used a balanced scoring attack and a relentless defensive approach to record a non-region win Tuesday against visiting Madison County.
The Wildcats, who are now 5-2 overall, dispatched of the Raiders 73-47 in a game that was decided early. AHS jumped out to a 26-7 lead after the first quarter and never looked back. All 15 players on the roster saw action with 12 registering points.
“They worked really hard to take Cameron (Blakely) away,” Wildcat coach Kevin Morris said after the game. “He still got several rebounds and that opened Rakim (Peters) up.”
Blakely and Peters both finished with a team-high 14 points while Austin Miller scored nine and Kamar Baldwin and Brandon Grullon both added eight points.
“We have so many things that we can do that people can’t focus on stopping just one person,” Morris said. “We have people who are capable of stepping up and rebounding or scoring or playing defense against the other team’s best player.”
Even with Tuesday’s game being a non-region tilt, Morris said the focus was to go out and play well from the start.
“It’s about getting better,” the coach said. “I said it before and I still believe it’s true, but we have our best basketball in front of us. Tonight was just another chance to go play somebody.”
AHS led by 20 points at halftime and by 26 points after the third quarter.
Baldwin continued to shine as a freshman competing on the varsity level.
“He is still searching somewhat when it comes to where he belongs on the court, but there’s no doubt he is going to be a special player,” Morris said.
Region 8-AAAAA foe Loganville arrives at AHS Friday night for an 8:30 p.m. contest and Morris is expecting not only a tough game, but also a great atmosphere.
“We haven’t done a lot of scouting this season,” Morris said. “We are just concerned about us. I know Friday will be a huge night. Our students are planning to dress up. It’s going to be the place to be. If anyone has other plans, they need to cancel them.”
One interesting stat from the first quarter against Madison County saw Ahmed Ahmed go on a run where he had an assist, steal, assist, rebound, basket and a drawn charge.
Earlier this season Ahmed had four deflections during the first three possessions by Gainesville.
The AHS coaches said his effort helped set the tone once again Tuesday night.
NOTES: Going into Tuesday’s game with non-region foe Madison County, the leading scorer for the AHS boys was Cameron Blakely with 15.8 points per contest. Blakely also was averaging 7.2 rebounds through the Wildcats’ first six contests.
Teammate Kamar Baldwin had an 11-point average prior to Tuesday night and also had 20 steals. The freshman was also averaging 5.2 rebounds a contest.
Rakim Peters had an 8-point average with 10 steals for the season and 4.3 rebounds per game for coach Kevin Morris.
Qua Cleveland had 14 steals going into Tuesday’s game with 4.7 points per game.
