Bowling Green School’s Buccaneers captured the District 4AAA Championship after a 50-44 victory over Columbia Academy in Tuesday night’s home game.
“It feels amazing. It feels a little sweeter than what it did my sophomore year. We actually had to work a lot harder this time to get it. It’s nice,” Bowling Green senior Drew Wagner said.
This is the second time in the last three years the Buccaneers have won the district.
Bowling Green led 31-24 through three quarters and led by as many as 13 in the fourth at 39-26 with 5:12 left, but Columbia Academy closed the gap to 42-36 at the 2:27 mark.
After Columbia’s 10-3 run, the Buccaneers scored five straight to essentially secure the victory.
Jackson Dobraska made a pair of free throws to make it an eight-point game. Jace Schexnider made a layup and Braden Edwards split from the line and the Buccaneers were up 47-36, just 56 seconds away from winning the district.
But Columbia did not go away quietly as it answered with five straight points of its own to make it 47-41 with about 30 seconds left.
Tate Duncan scored all five points. He made a field goal and hit a 3-pointer to pull Columbia within two possessions.
Dobraska pushed the lead back to three possessions after hitting a layup with Edwards delivering a length-of-the-court pass. Dobraska added a free throw with 7.8 seconds left for a six-point lead in the 50-44 win.
Dobraska, scored a game-high 26 points to go with seven rebounds, an assist, three steals and a blocked a shot, talked about how the Buccaneers were able to defeat Columbia.
“We knew who their two (best) players were, stopping them, and ran a high-low, got the ball in the paint and scored the ball when we could,” Dobraska said.
Bowling Green coach Jaron Edwards, who is in his third season as Bowling Green’s head coach, said the coaches knew that Columbia has two very good players — probably two of the better players in their association — in Duncan and Ras Pace.
“Our game plan was to stop them from scoring. We didn’t do too good of a job of it because they scored most of their points (39 combined), but I will say we stepped up and played some ball tonight and stopped (Columbia) from scoring,” Edwards said.
Schexnider posted 10 points, two boards, an assist and three steals. Schexnider made two 3-pointers.
Edwards tallied seven points, four boards, five assists and two steals.
Wagner totaled seven points, four rebounds and three assists.
Rece Dillon tallied two rebounds, one assist and a pair of steals while Sammy Phelps added a rebound in the victory.
Pace topped Columbia with 21 points.
Duncan posted 18.
Ethan Stringer recorded four and Cody Fortenberry added one.