Westside pulls away from Southwest in final minute

For more than three quarters, Aaron Ridley and the Southwest Patriots gave Westside all it could handle Tuesday night.

Ridley, a 6-foot-4 senior guard, caused fits for the top-ranked team in GHSA Class 3A. He scored 27 points to go along with nine rebounds and four steals, putting Southwest in the lead heading into the fourth quarter.

But Westside, which was playing its first home game since losing 6-foot-11 Xavier signee Kentrevious Jones to a northeastern prep school, came up with an answer. Samone Reed hit a pair of 3-pointers and a three-point play in the fourth quarter to help the Seminoles pull away for a 71-63 victory.

Khavon Moore had 27 points and 15 rebounds for Westside (10-3), which has won four of its five games since Jones’ departure. Southwest fell to 9-4.

Three who mattered

Reed: After scoring just one point during the first three quarters, Reed made a 3-pointer with 6:35 to go and another with 4:19 remaining. He also converted a three-point play off a steal with 5:09 to go. The Seminoles went from trailing by two to leading by four during that stretch.

Moore: Averaging 20.3 points and 9.4 rebounds entering Tuesday’s contest, Moore tried to make a lot of things happen. Several of his shots, however, failed to fall. He went 8-of-23 from the field and 9-of-16 from the line.

Ridley: Solid most of the night, Ridley went 8-of-14 from the field and 8-of-11 from the line. He was held to three points in the final quarter.

Turning point

Trailing 64-63 with 44 seconds to go, Southwest had held Westside scoreless for more than two minutes when Ridley was called for a reach-in on Moore. Patriots head coach Robert Worthy was assessed a quick technical foul, and Moore hit two of his four free throw attempts. More importantly, Westside retained possession, forcing Southwest to foul. The Seminoles hit 5-of-6 free throws the rest of the way while Southwest failed to score.

Observations

Missing the big man: Although Westside outrebounded Southwest 44-31, the Seminoles did not seem to have the edge on the offensive boards it had when Jones was around. For the first three quarters, Southwest had the halfcourt game going its favor, limiting quality second chances. Westside went to more of a motion game in the fourth quarter, passing the ball around to open up shooters.

Still have transition: Westside picked up 14 steals, with Trey Foster recording seven of them, to give the Seminoles some easy points.

Focused scoring: Ridley outscored the other four Southwest starters 27-17. The Patriots got 11 points off the bench from Jordan Slocum.

Also Tuesday night

The Westside girls (5-6) rolled to a 63-32 victory over Southwest. KeAsia Harvey led three Westside players in double figures with 17, while Avrie Grayer had 14 for the Patriots (5-8).

They said it

Westside head coach Josh Grube on the close game: “We know every time we play another Macon school, we’re going to get their best effort. Any time two Macon schools get together, you can throw out the records. I’ve got to give a lot of credit to Southwest. They came out and was more aggressive for the most part than we were. It seemed at some points that we were in slow motion at times, but my guys made the plays they needed to make at the end of the game.”

Grube on getting the motion offense going in the fourth quarter: “Our guys know they need to line up in a certain way against the defense. Hats off to Southwest; they run a defense that we don’t see a lot of. It was good for us to have to execute against it. When we finally did what we were coached to do, we were able to get some easy looks. We didn’t finish every time, but we were able to get some easier looks.”

Worthy on Ridley’s impact: “Aaron Ridley is probably our best basketball player. We try to run our offense through him, and when we get opportunities to run it through him, in general we have success.”

Worthy on the technical: “I didn’t see that play the same way as the official did. But you have to accept what they said, roll along and get ready for the next play.”

What’s next?

Westside is at Jackson on Friday, while Southwest hosts Northeast the same day.

This story was originally published January 3, 2017 at 11:48 PM with the headline "Westside pulls away from Southwest in final minute."