Pickens County downs Meek to advance to regional semifinal

By BRIAN HAMILTON, Editor

Pickens County was able to withstand a scoring barrage by Meek due Payton Key and Caleb Aaron last Tuesday night to win 85-60 in the subregional playoff and advance to the northwest regional semifinals in Hanceville. Key finished the game with 35 points, while Aaron added 18, as the two career 1,000-point accounted for 53 of Meek’s 60 points. The Tornadoes would use a stingy full-court press, however, to pull away and win comfortably.

“From watching film on them, we knew they had a couple guys that could shoot the basketball,” Pickens County head coach Marcuss Barnes said. “We knew that we had to pressure them and really try to cause them to turn it over. Sometimes, with kids, they’ve gotta see it for themselves to believe it and they didn’t know these guys could shoot like this, until they figured it out for themselves.”

Pickens took an early 5-0 lead on the Tigers, as Jawan Petty made a jump shot, followed by a three by Isaiah Stevenson. Meek’s Key would then embark on a scoring barrage, hitting a long jumper, followed by three consecutive three-pointers to put the Tigers in front 11-10 with 4:53 remaining in the first quarter. Key’s fourth three-point basket of the game then gave Meek a 16-10 lead with just over a minute left in the first quarter. Tramaine Prude would make a basket to cut the Tigers’ lead to 16-12, but Meek would hold an 18-12 advantage after the first quarter.

The Tornadoes opened the second quarter with a 13-0 run, capped by a Jadavian Johnson layup to give Pickens County a 25-18 lead midway through the second quarter. Caleb Aaron would halt the Tornado run with a three-point basket to make the score 25-21 with 2:49 left until halftime. Jah-Marien Latham made a layup put Pickens County up 29-21 before a Key three-pointer cut the Tornado lead to 29-26 with 1:28 left until halftime. Pickens would lead Meek 35-30 at halftime.