It’s been a long time since Columbus’s boys basketball team has last tasted defeat – December 4 to be precise.
That loss was a 70-60 defeat by Class 7A-hopeful Starkville and the Falcons have since followed up with 84 days, or just over 11 weeks, of pure domination on the basketball court as they’ve racked up a staggering 20 straight victories that included an unblemished 10-0 run through Region 1-5A games and the region championship.
The team carried that momentum into the Class 5A playoffs last week where it demolished Florence 71-32 in the first round and booked its ticket to today’s quarterfinals, where its toughest opponent in a long while – the No. 2 Lanier Bulldogs – awaits.
Both teams come into the game with a 24-5 overall record and both teams stand at the top of the MaxPreps leaderboards with the Falcons tabbed as the No. 1 team in 5A, and the No. 5 team in the state, and the Bulldogs right behind at No. 2 in 5A, and No. 7 in the state.
Columbus head coach Phillip Morris said it will be quite the showdown when the game tips off at 8:30 p.m. at Mississippi Valley State University.
“(Lanier is) a really good team. They have really good athletes, they have good guards, they have a good big. I think it’s a great matchup as far as talent for talent, athlete for athlete,” he said. “It’s going to be a great matchup and should be an exciting game. … They are a pretty good team, a pretty well-balanced team. … (They have) pretty good shooters and pretty good scorers and have a pretty balanced team overall.”
Strength vs. strength
Both teams have put up big numbers in the win column and the scoreboard all year, with the Falcons owning an average 20-point score differential over its foes (64-44), with the Bulldogs not far behind with a 17-point average margin (66-49). Talent of course, will be everywhere on the floor when the game tips. The Falcons boast Mr. Class 5A Basketball in Michael Hood Jr. and are anchored in the paint by 6-foot-7 forward Davie Verdell. Both Falcons are known to stretch their wings, putting rim-rattling ducks on display all season, some of which have come from lobs thrown by shifty point guard Tylan Brown, who churned out 10 points and four dimes against Florence. Guard Maxwell Leach brings the firepower from deep and canned three shots from long range last week as well.
Hood and Verdell will be put up against Lanier’s Geraci Carson, 6-foot-6 forward who’s being highly recruited on the football field as a defensive lineman. As a member of the Class of 2028, Carson holds football offers from Mississippi State, Ole Miss, the University of Miami and Southern Miss, according to 247Sports.
“(Carson is) more of a rotation guy, he’s not one of the main guys, but when he does get in he provides a lot of toughness and physicality for them,” Morris said.
Running the Bulldogs’ offense is point guard Lazabian Banks, who Morris said is “one of the better guards in the state.”
“(Banks) makes them go,” he said. “He can really get going on most nights. In the few films I saw he didn’t go off on, but for the most part when he gets going it gets everybody else going,” Morris said.
If the Falcons want to keep on dancing and head to the Mississippi Coliseum for the semifinals they’ll have to match Lanier’s energy and physicality. It’s a game in which they cannot afford to come out flat.
“(We have to) be tough,” he said. “Control the paint, control the boards. They do a good job of getting out fast and running out in transition whether you make a basket or miss a basket. Getting back in transition will be a big thing for us. Just taking care of the ball and keep playing team ball the way we have been lately, and I think everything will take care of itself.”
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