Warriors lose two region contests

Grovetown High School boys basketball coach Casey Dees saw in Richmond Academy's characteristics what he wanted to see in his young Warriors team.

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The Musketeers' veteran lineup overpowered the first-year program Friday, winning 58-35.

"They're an aggressive team, they're an experienced team, they're a physical team," Dees said. "We've got to get to that point. I think in a few years, we'll be there. We just got to keep working, keep getting in the weight room."

Richmond Academy remained undefeated in Region 3-AAAA. The Musketeers pushed their region record to 14-0 with a victory over Lakeside on Saturday.

Musketeers senior Raston Brown led all scorers with 21 points. Richmond locked down on defense, holding Grovetown sophomore standout Myles McDavid to 8 points.

"We saw they were calling more fouls, so we couldn't be as aggressive," Brown said. "But we still had to play good, tight defense."

Dees felt, at least for a quarter, that his team had played well enough to compete with the region's top team. After that, he said, the Warriors failed to make free throws and take charges when needed on defense.

A turning point came midway through the third quarter. With Grovetown trying to stay in the game, down only six, Musketeers' forward Don Quarles sank a shot and was fouled. His free throw was off, but Brown grabbed the rebound, scored and was fouled. He sank the free throw, sank two of three free throws a minute later and added another three-point play before the quarter was done. The Warriors trailed by 14 entering the final eight minutes.

"The first quarter, the first quarter and a half, we played as well as we needed to play," Dees said. "We just did not finish the game. That bothers me."

The Warriors troubles continued the following day at Evans. Grovetown fell to the Knights, 66-29.

Evans senior Troy Griffith made five 3-pointers and finished with a game-high 21 points. Senior teammate Tony Davis added 17.

McDavid led Grovetown with 9 points.

Before dropping the two weekend games, Grovetown had developed some momentum, beating Harlem, Butler and Lakeside to move above .500 in region play.

Entering Tuesday's game with Glenn Hills, the Warriors were 6-7 in Region 3-AAAA.

"What bothers me the most is, I feel like if we do what we're supposed to do, we have a chance to win it," Dees said after the Richmond loss. "We did not put ourselves in that situation. We're a better basketball team than what we showed right there."