Mays Claims Region Title, No 1 Seed With Win Over Villa Rica

Mays head coach Desmond Williams Sr. looks on as his defense contains Villa Rica

With the region title and No. 1 seed for the Georgia High School Association Class 5A Region 5 tournament on the line, the Mays Raiders boys basketball team traveled to take on the Villa Rica Wildcats, who looked to avoid the regular season sweep by the Raiders. Though both teams got off to a bit of rough start as they each had early turnovers, the Raiders would get out to a 10-0 run as they took advantage of the Wildcats turnovers.

Despite their slow offensive start, Villa Rica would find enough momentum to close out the first quarter trailing 14-8 and would then open the second quarter with a quick Xavier Buckner basket to make it a 14-10 game in favor of the Raiders. However, that would be the closet the Wildcats would get as the Raiders would then go on another run as they outscored Villa Rica 17-6 to end the period with a 31-16 lead at the half.

As the third quarter began, Mays appeared to have solid control of the game as several players were contributors on both ends of the court, helping the Raiders increase their lead to as much as 21 points in the period. The Wildcats would get the deficit down to 14 points at one point in the third quarter, however, the Raiders’ defense would intern force the Wildcats to turn the ball over several more times as Mays closed the quarter with a 52-34 lead. Unable to overcome the deficit, Villa Rica would fall 74-50 to Mays.

With the win, the Raiders closed out the regular season at 18-7 overall, but more importantly, 13-3 in region play. And while they tied Tri-Cities, who they split their regular season matchups with, in region play, the Raiders earned the tie breaker, thus claiming the regular season region title and No. 1 seed heading into the region tournament.