Therrell, Sandy Creek win Day 1 Lemon St. Classic battles

On Friday, the 5th annual Lemon St. Classic kicked off with a full slate of boys high school basketball action over the course of three days with teams from through out Georgia and traveling as far as from Toronto, Canada. The day began with the Therrell Panthers taking on the Heritage Hawks and gutting out a 58-55 win to get back in the win column.

"It just tells us about our resilience," Therrell head coach, Patavious Sorrell, said following the Friday win as he credited his players efforts in withstanding a tough Heritage team to pick up the fought victory.

"A lot of our l's that we've gotten have been really close, so this one right here is kind of big because these guys showed that they can do it. They showed that they can take somebody's punch and finish at the end," Sorrell said as he praised the Panthers' players for their performance.

Another Lemon St. matchup featured the defending Georgia High School Association Class 3A defending champions, Sandy Creek Patriots, as they took on the Carver Tigers in a rematch from last year's semifinals in which the Patriots defeated the Tigers 66-32 to advance and eventually win the 3A title.

Similar to the first matchup of the day, the Patriots found themselves in a back and forth affair with the Tigers throughout the first half, however, in the third quarter, Sandy Creek would get a huge lift off the bench from junior, Amari Latimer, who connected on three 3-point baskets to help the Patriots take a 40-31 lead.

Eventually closing out the third quarter with a 47-40 lead, Sandy Creek would extend it to 10 before going on to pick up the 62-50 win, improving to 8-1 and handing the Tigers their first loss of the season. "When they stuck to the game plan, we executed really well," Sandy Creek head coach, Jon-Michael Nickerson said after their Friday win as he spoke on what impressed him most about his team's performance.

"We've been working on trying to cut down turnovers and playing off two feet because we haven't been doing that very well up to this point, and every single time they committed to it, we had a wide open shot and if we didn't make it, it was at least a great shot," Nickerson continued, adding he and his staff would like to see their players turn "fundamental things into more of a habit,".

The Patriots will be back in action on Day 2 of the Lemon St. Classic when they take on Crestwood (Toronto) at 2:45pm while Therrell will take on Greater Atlanta Christian at 11am.