Premier League semifinals Friday at the Athens Academy Middle School gym

Lowell Matthews dribbles the ball up the court at Oconee Practice Gym.
Conner Hatch and Carson Pittard join him on the Athens Academy A-Team.
Photos by Dan Matthews
The 5th grade division of the Athens Premier League has been a fierce battle all this brief basketball season, and the post-season tournament has been no exception with that stiff competition continuing.

The defending champion Athens Academy will play host to the top seed Malcolm Bridge with Coach Kevin Daniel and the confident star Jack Mangel 7:30 pm Friday on the Spartans home court at the Middle School gym. This will be a mammoth battle, a clash of the titans if you will.

Athens Academy Coach Chris Pittard and most of this team including the lanky Alex Deltchev, Drew Byus, Connor Hatch, Taylor Boswell and speedy off guard Owen Roberts  scouted the Thunder of Malcolm Bridge Wednesday in their opening round 33-10 rout of an overmatched Prince Avenue squad at the main gymnasium inside Oconee County High School. Their team includes Darien Appling, Turner Daniel, Martay Darden, Nathan Garthreux, Jack Mangel, Christian Stround and Dillon Moore.  Apalachee played in the nightcap.

Prince Avenue advanced after beating the Athens Academy B-team Monday at the Spartan Center in a 22-12 game that was much closer content than the score indicated. The B-team featured strong performances from all stars Avi Patel and Jackson Reynolds.

Hilt Moree hit a basket at the end of his first season of competitive basketball. Noah Steyer was a beast on the boards. The B team did not win a game all season for the Athens Academy team, but it was not because of lack of effort. The second squad improved with every game and got good teamwork from the likes of Thomas Lupton, Ryan Iyer, James Chesser, T. Donnan, Parker Skiles, and Kush Vyas.  Many of these kids were playing organized basketball for the first time and became acclimated very quickly to the uptempo pacel of the Premier League. This is not your rec league basketball.






The Athens Academy A-team won 27-25 in dramatic fashion Tuesday against the Oconee County team coached by a couple of members of UGA Coach Mark Fox's staff. The Oconee blue led most of the game but was caught by a dozen late points by the Spartans' Conner Hatch, who was literally just off the injured reserve with cat scratch fever (and infection).

Jace Bonds is the Oconee player with the ball in this last photo and he seemed like he could drive the length of the court at his command. Here Owen Roberts goes for the steal with Joe Colley watching in the background with teammates Lowell Matthews and Carson Pittard. Parker Fox is in the background for Oconee.

Bonds had a chance to win the game with less than two seconds to go but could not connected with a 26 foot jumper from the right corner at the very end. His disappointment (as well as that of Coach Mark Fox's talented son Parker and all his other Oconee teammates) was quite palatable while the Spartans' jubilation was effervescent and overflowing.  This was the second time that the Athens Academy team defeated the Oconee squad, with the first coming a few weeks back at the old Clarke Central gym.

The championship tilt is Saturday with the All-star game following.

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