‘Something big’ awaits Upson-Lee in title game

There are ribbons throughout downtown Thomaston, as well as “We Are UL” signs attached to light poles.

Some businesses have painted signs of support on their storefront windows.

A few miles away, Upson-Lee just practices basketball and prepares.

And throughout Upson County, at least a few thousand folks make travel plans. This time, if one has transportation, everybody in town who wants to see Upson-Lee in the GHSA Tournament can do so, in the biggest game in program history.

The undefeated and top-ranked Knights play for their first GHSA championship at 8 p.m. Friday at McCamish Pavilion on the Georgia Tech campus.

The Knights are exciting to watch but are trying to take things in stride, if possible.

“The way it’s been (going) may be new to them,” head coach Darrell Lockhart said. “But the basic scenario is, they know something big is about to happen.”

It’s the final game of the day at McCamish, after Holy Innocents-Wesleyan girls, Greenforest Christian-Southwest Atlanta Christian boys and Columbus/Carver-Columbus girls.

St. Pius X is promoting the game as a “whiteout” so Upson-Lee is countering with a “blackout”. The fan bases should fill a fairly sizable number of the 8,600 seats in the renovated arena.

The Upson-Lee gym seats about 1,400, with another 200 able to find a spot to stand. In the final home game of the season, the 70-56 quarterfinal win over Thomson, a few hundred had to hang up when calling about tickets or turn around from the doors and listen to the radio.

There was no room. Again.

Lockhart said he was told about 1,200 fans made the 170-mile trip to Augusta for the semifinal game against Henry County.

“We had a lot of people, gosh almighty,” Lockhart said. “I walked out there, I thought we were at home.”

The Knights had little trouble adjusting to the college facility, in part because their own basketball home has something of an arena feel to it.

And they got some exposure to bigger places when the seeds for this season were being planted.

“We saw we were gonna be good and hard to handle when we played summer league games,” senior guard Mikey Smith said. “We went to Mercer and Columbus State and all that.”

The only wounded Knights player is Kentrez Traylor, who suffered a bone chip injury on Feb. 3 against Perry.

Lockhart called Traylor the team’s top defender, but teammates have stepped up. Since that game, a 48-25 win, the Knights have held teams — all in region and state tournament play — to an average of 57.7 points while scoring 74.2 points.

Focusing on defense is a key, especially considering what happened the last time the Knights didn’t focus enough on it.

They were smacked at home in the first round of the tournament a year ago, 73-56 by New Hampstead, which then lost in the second around to finish 17-11.

“Defense, mostly,” Smith said, shaking is head, about how the Knights lost. “That was it.”

Upson-Lee is a young team, with Smith the only senior currently in the rotation. Traylor is the other senior of impact, so this team has potential for a serious state run next year, too.

First things first.

“I can’t wait for it to get here,” Lockhart admitted.

This isn’t the first time St. Pius X has faced a team from Upson County in the postseason.

The Golden Lions took on old Upson High in the 1979 postseason, and Upson won 49-45, following that with wins over Marist, Josey, Dublin and Gordon before losing 69-68 to Southwest Atlanta in the championship.

Upson-Lee was formed in 1992 from R.E. Lee and Upson. R.E. Lee, alma mater of Lockhart, won girls state titles in 1950, 1963 and 1966, while the boys peaked at the semis in 1927 and 1947.

Upson’s girls won the title in 1988, and the boys were runners-up in 1974 and 1979.

St. Pius X’s boys last made the final in 1992 and lost, while the girls have won five state championships since 2004.

The Golden Lions, who also had quality support Saturday in Augusta, won two games in last year’s tournament before losing 57-37 to runner-up Jonesboro in the quarterfinals.

They can shoot. The Golden Lions made four 3s in the first quarter of their first-round win over Ridgeland, 14 for the game. Everett Lane and Christian Mattei had four each in the win.

“They run their plays to a T,” Lockhart said. “They’ve got some of the best shooters in high school basketball, so we’re going to have to be on our Ps and Qs and know where they’re at all times.

“When they put the X on you, they’re gonna come and get you.”

Lockhart said the Knights are bigger and more athletic, and avoiding foul trouble — and St. Pius X is good at getting teams in foul trouble — is huge.

The Golden Lions are deeper, and Lockhart can foresee a five in, five out substitution pattern. The Knights go about eight deep.

But that has worked fine for 31 games.

“We’ve been lucky,” Lockhart said. “Most of these guys have been playing together for a long time. It shows.

“They know how to play. It’s a matter of pushing them when they need to be pushed, correcting them when they need to be corrected.

“Otherwise, you sit back, tell them what to do, and they do it.”

This story was originally published March 9, 2017 at 4:33 PM with the headline "‘Something big’ awaits Upson-Lee in title game."