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By Andy States
Digital Sports Content Manager
All season, the Friendly Patriots and Lackey Chargers seemed on a collision course in the 3A South. When the day finally arrived in Saturday's 3A South final at Wise, the collision didn't make very much noise.
Friendly opened up a double-digit lead in the opening quarter and never looked back. Senior A.J. Thomas scored a game-high 23 points, and the Patriots defeated Lackey 77-60 tp advance tp the state semifinals for the first time since winning the second of back-to-back state championships in 2004. The Patriots will play 3A East champion Atholton at 3 p.m. on Thursday at Comcast Center.
"It was just riding the wave in the playoffs. I think one of the best things that happened was the snow," said Friendly coach Rob Garner of his team's performance and the weather-induced break that somehow helped his team to refocus on its defense. "Knowing that Lackey was going to be a tough game, we really felt like we were going to get it done. We were going to have to do a great job defensively."
That defense was key right from the start on Saturday afternoon, as Friendly (22-3) gave Lackey (22-3) fits right from the start. The Patriots stormed out to a 21-9 lead after a quarter.
"We wanted to finish them early," said Friendly's A.J. Thomas, who led all scorers with 23 points. "We didn't want a slow start. A team like that, they might get on a run if we start slow. We just wanted to start strong and put the game away in the first half and finish it in the second."
Possibly even worse, for Lackey, was that top scorer Rashad Beam picked up two fouls in the first two minutes. That was a harbinger of things to come, as Lackey suffered from foul trouble all game. Friendly committed plenty of fouls, too, but according to Lackey coach Tony Mast there was a marked difference in the replacements the two sides sent to the court.
"My hat's off to Friendly," Mast said. "Friendly's a great defensive team. They played with a lot of intensity and the one thing is, if they're going to get fouls like this it played to their advantage big-time because they're so deep.
"I'm not trying to say that the refs in any way, shape or form dictated the game. Just the style of the way we played today, both teams, benefitted Friendly greatly."
Two free throws by Thomas increased the Patriots' lead to 34-17 win 3 minutes 30 seconds remaining in the first half. Lackey responded to cut the lead back down to 12 after a pair of free throws each from Beam and Brian Dixon, but Sherrod Baltimore's three-pointer before the buzzer pushed the lead back to 41-26 at the break.
Midway through the third a double technical was assessed, with Beam the recipient on the Lackey side. The tech translated into his fourth personal foul, rendering him a specatator for the bulk of the second half. Still, Lackey held even through the third period, and cut the gap to six points on two occasions in the fourth period. With 3:53 left, the Chargers trailed just 57-51.
But as could be expected, Friendly's big player made big plays to seal the game. Thomas scored eight consecutive points to push the lead back to 14. In the process of the Friendly run, Beam fouled out and with that the air was let out of any potential Chargers' rally.
"I don't think it's a secret. [Beam] is one of the toughest kids that we knew we were going to play against all year," Garner said."We tried to make comarisons with him to kids in [Prince George's County], who just have the drive that Beam has. He's aggressive all the time.
"One of our goals was to make Beam play defense. We wanted to go at him aggressively and it kind of went our way a little bit. He got some tic-tack fouls and got him in foul trouble. That might have messed up a little continuity with Lackey, I don't know, but obviously it helped us."
Supplementing Thomas' 23-point night, Henry Hood scored 13 and Bryan Brooks 10.
Dixon led the Chargers with 22 points, while Beam managed 20. But after Beam fouled out, Lackey seemed to lose the momentum it had been building through the fourth quarter.
"Like I told the kids, the only thing I was upset with is the way we kind of quit after he fouled out," Mast said.
After losing a late lead in last year's regional final to eventual 3A champ Largo, Lackey had hoped to make its return to the state semifinals for the first time since making a finals appearance in 2006. But again, the minefield that is the 3A South proved to be too much.
"It just stinks being in this tough region," Mast said. "Do I think we're one of the top four teams in the state. Yeah, I do. But it's just like last year. I thought we were one of the top two teams in the state last year. The unfortunate thing is No. 1, and in this case maybe No. 1 and No. 2 is in our region with us."
Friendly 77, Lackey 60
L 9 17 12 22
F 21 20 12 24
Lackey: Dixon 22, Beam 20, Smith 5, McFall 5, Jordan 4, Gibbs 3, Waugh 1
Friendly: Thomas 23, Hood 13, Brooks 10, Baltimore 9, Latson 8, Bentley 5, Mayfield 4, Sims 3, Strong 2
Content Manager James McCray III contributed to this article