Norcross slams Collins Hill with a first half onslaught

NORCROSS, GEORGIA – Trailing Norcross by 36 points, Collins Hill was in no rush to score the ball in the closing seconds of the first half Wednesday night in the first round of the Class 7A state playoffs.

In an effort to stop the bleeding and keep the Blue Devils from adding to its already monstrous first half that saw them drain 10 three-pointers and shoot nearly 70 percent from the field, the Eagles elected to sit on the ball and settle for the final shot.

And while it stopped the bleeding momentarily, it didn’t last.

Blue Devils point guard Bilal Abdur-Rahman put the icing on the cake of a 54-point half for Norcross, going coast-to-coast and scoring at the buzzer to send the game into halftime with his team leading the Eagles 54-16.

“You get a shooting half like that once a season,” Blue Devils head coach Jesse McMillan said. “I’m really happy that it happened in the first round of the state playoffs.”

In a total domination by the Blue Devils, they went on to cruise to a 90-61 victory over the Eagles to advance into the second round of the state playoffs where they will play host to Osborne.

The Blue Devils finished the game with 13 three-pointers scored by seven different players.

“We’ve been working on it,” McMillan said of their shooting. “We’re a downhill offensive team and teams have started to switch and sag on us. So we’ve been putting in a lot of time and effort into shooting in practice. Some guys have been coming early and staying late to get that extra work in. We hit 11 threes in the first half and that’s big.”

Defensively, the Blue Devils were locked in from the opening jump. They held the Eagles to four points in the first quarter on 2 of 14 shooting. Before the Eagles could blink, they trailed the Blue Devils 27-4 heading into the second quarter.

“I was really pleased with the way we shot the basketball, but defensively we were locked in,” McMillan said. “We were contesting shots. Collins Hill wasn’t getting good looks and we were able to get out in transition and get some easy ones, too.”

The Blue Devils shot the ball even better in the second quarter.

They knocked down their first eight shots to start the quarter, including a perfect 6-for-6 from behind the arc. That built their already massive lead to 54-16 heading into halftime.

Five different Blue Devils drilled a three-pointer in the second quarter, which matched the field total by the Eagles for the entire first half.

Lamariyon Jordan led the Blue Devils in scoring at the half with 15 points while Mier Panoam wasn’t far behind with 12.

“My assistant coaches did a great job of breaking down tendencies and player personal for Collins Hill,” McMillan said. “The guys were locked in and we were able to give them a lot of stuff to be prepared for and they executed the game plan really well. I’m proud of that.”

The Eagles finally caught fire in the second half, but it wasn’t enough to make a difference.

Norcross opened up the second half with back-to-back alley-oop dunks to Panoam and scored 18 more points to take a 72-40 lead into the fourth quarter.

With their starters pulled not too far into the fourth, the Blue Devils still reached the 90-point mark for the game after Michael Zhang drilled his second three-pointer of the night off the bench.

Jordan finished his night with 19 points and was one of five players to reach double figures for the Blue Devils. Panoam finished with 16 while Bilal Abdur-Rahman, Samarion Bond and Toby Ojukwu each scored 13.

With the win, the Blue Devils will now gear up for a second-round matchup at home against Osborne, who knocked off Denmark on the road in overtime Wednesday night.

If the Blue Devils are able to get past Osborne, they will face the winner of Newton-Pebblebrook in the quarterfinals. The Blue Devils won the Class 7A state championship last season and are riding high after their first-round win.

“They’re teenagers, so they’re always going to feel invincible,” McMillan said. “When you can kind of do some things in between the lines to show them that the foundation is set for a good run then hopefully good things will happen.”