Langston Hughes 'settled in defensively' in win over Douglas County
The 2023-2024 Georgia High School Association basketball regular season is winding down as teams look to lock in their positions for the upcoming region tournaments' and bid for the state championship tournaments. On Friday, the Langston Hughes Panthers and Douglas County Tigers met up for the second time with the Panthers looking to complete the regular season series sweep of the Tigers after picking up the 55-47 win back in early January.
The Panthers would open the first quarter getting out to a 13-4 lead lead but the Tigers would find some momentum late in the period with a 7-2 run and trail 15-11 at the end of the quarter. In the second quarter, Douglas County would could the Panthers' lead down to three points after a Christian Richards three-point basket would make it a 17-14 game in favor of Langston Hughes and later get within two points as they trailed 23-21 with less than one minute to go in the period and would trail 25-23 at the half.
In the third quarter, the Tigers would open up and take their first lead as they would go up 26-25 after another Richards three-point basket, but a quick 6-0 run including back to back three point baskets by sophomore Addison Dyer would help Langston Hughes regain the lead as they would go up 31-26 and close out the period with a 42-35 lead. As the fourth quarter would get underway, Dyer would score the first five points of the period as a 5-0 run, including a three-point basket by Dyer would give the Panthers a 47-35 lead, their largest of the night to that point.
With momentum now fully swung in their favor, the Panthers would go on to close out with a 58-41 win over the Tigers, completing the regular season series sweep of Douglas County on a night in which Langston Hughes celebrated their senior players and head coach, Rory Welsh's accomplishments leading the Panthers, including notching his 200th career win last week. "Man, it's unbelievable," Welsh said as he expressed his sentiments of the night. "I've been here 12 years and one of our mottos is tradition built daily," Welsh added as reflected on having to build the Panthers' program from the ground up and having the opportunity for his former players and coaches in attendance made Friday's win that more special to him. "I'll cherish it forever," he said.
As for the win itself, Welsh credited his players for their ability to make the proper adjustments in the second half which helped lead to the win. "We kind of settled in defensively, we didn't give up as many second chance points in the second half," Welsh said of the Panthers' second half performance in which they "stayed to our rotations and we got rebounds," Welsh added. With the win, Langston Hughes improves to 16-6 overall and 10-2 in region play and more importantly remain just two games back of region leader, Alexander, who they will face on Tuesday.
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