East Paulding Advances in Region Tournament

Despite the way Saturday’s game played out, East Paulding head coach Jermal McCoy insists that his team is not a one-man band.

Guard Christian Browden carried the team offensively, displaying a hot hand from everywhere on the court and finishing with 30 points in the Raiders’ 69-59 win over Osborne in the Region 5-AAAA tournament.

Not that McCoy was complaining.

“His play was huge for us because if you look at our stats, we have about six kids that average about the same amount of points for us,” McCoy said. “But he’s been the most consistent for us and he played very well tonight.”

McCoy attributes Browden’s offensive explosion to his team’s ability to secure the ball and execute its offense.

“The biggest thing that we did better tonight was defensive rebounding because Osborne’s a great offensive rebounding team,” McCoy said. “We focused on trying to secure rebounds in our hands especially defensively. And offensively we just focused on running our offense. When we run our offense we’re able to score easy baskets. And that opens things up. When we stay in it, then that opens things up for Browder and other guys to have one-on-one offensive opportunities.”

On the other side, Osborne head coach Emmett Rouse wasn’t feeling too talkative after the game.

When asked what the source of his frustration was, his response was: “Turnovers, missed free throws, no rebounding. That’s it.”

And that was it. He declined further comment beyond that.

Rouse’s frustration is understandable given the fact that his team lost to a team they beat by 22 points in January. But the statistical categories that Rouse mentioned weren’t really the culprit for the loss.

Osborne turned the ball over just 14 times, compared to 25 for East Paulding, and East Paulding won the rebounding battle, but only barely, 25-24.

Missed free throws did hurt the Cardinals, but they were plagued more by poor shooting from the field during the fourth quarter and the ability of East Paulding to knock down their free throws down the stretch.

Osborne trailed just 52-51 with 3:40 remaining in the game, but they managed just two field goals from that point on, while East Paulding hit 12-of-14 free throws to pull away.

Houston Cabbell had 18 points, six assists and five rebounds in a solid overall performance for the Cardinals. And forward Devonte Thornton, who makes his living playing no further than 15 feet from the basket, finished with 13 points, but managed to grab just one rebound.

East Paulding got 16 points off the bench from Isiah Wise.

The two teams entered the region tournament with the same region record, but Osborne had the higher seed because of its head-to-head win during the regular season. The Cardinals finish with an overall record of 9-17, while East Paulding advances to take on top-seeded Pope on Wednesday with a trip to the state tournament on the line.

“We’ve got a goal in mind and we’re trying to attain it one game at a time,” McCoy said.