Around the two-minute mark of a blowout game, the Westside contingent started chanting “3-Peat!”
Coach Jerry Hunter cleared his bench, and the Toombs County faithful who made the 103-mile trek from Lyons to Macon systematically filed out of the Macon Coliseum.
In completely dominant fashion, the Westside Patriots (29-4) became just the 11th boys basketball team in Georgia High School Association history to win three straight state championships, easily dispatching Toombs County, 64-29, Thursday in the Class AA state championship game at Macon Coliseum.
“It’s been a journey,” Hunter said. “And the destination is Macon, but it’s definitely been a journey.”
To be sure, Macon is definitely not an unfamiliar destination for Hunter and Westside. In fact, with a third straight state crown under his belt, one may be tempted to think that this level of winning is becoming old-hat.
Hunter won’t say that, though. In fact, though Thursday’s state title wasn’t his first, it is his favorite.
“This one [means the most], because this was a different group of guys, and we try to cultivate hard work, and a lot of kids don’t understand sacrifice,” Hunter said. “They got to see it in the beginning, and in the end, it’s worth it in terms of reaping the fruits of your labor.”
As far as the championship game itself, Westside started hot, scoring the game’s first eight points, and Ivery was responsible for six of those.
First, after Westside won the tip, Ivery drove the middle of the lane and kicked out to Bobby Blackwell who buried the mid-range jumper. Then Ivery scored on a floater in the lane and a layup in transition.
Middleton’s layup on a Toombs County steal gave Westside an 10-0 advantage early before Toombs County called timeout to settle down.
It didn’t help much as Westside continued its first half domination. With the exception of an alley-oop dunk over Javan Webb, Toombs County’s Dominic Eason only had five points and one made field goal in the first half as Westside took a 31-14 advantage into the locker room.
Ivery opened the third quarter similarly to how he began the game — scoring and facilitating. He made a pair of free throws, a couple of layups and had an assist which allowed him to place his hands on Westside’s first nine points of the quarter, and blew the game open, taking a 54-24 lead to the final, shortened fourth quarter.
The senior finished with a game-high 14 points on 5-of-8 shooting to go along with four rebounds and three assists. Westside’s defense held Toombs County’s Dominic Eason to just nine points on 2-of-7 shooting.
Westside never trailed and Toombs County never threatened in what was the Patriots’ most dominant performance of their three state title wins.
For Ivery, it was a sweet, savory victory as it gave him the high school state championship that he’s coveted for the last four years.
“It really feels good, winning my first ring at the end of my high school career and season,” Ivery said. “I feel good about that.”
It was even sweeter, given that Ivery’s performance came in support of his backcourt mate and cousin Demarco Middleton who was, according to Hunter, “feeling kind of sick.”
“He didn’t practice [Wednesday night],” Hunter said. “We told him to stay home.” Hunter said he knew that the senior point guard’s teammates, including Ivery, would rally around their floor general.
“I had to step up, because our point guard is feeling down and under the weather a little bit,” Ivery said. “So I had to take control of the game. I was excited to play, so I just let the game come to me.”
While Middleton said he wasn’t going to allow anything to keep him off the court for his last high school game, he was also appreciative of how his team helped him make a milestone he never thought possible when he arrived onto Westside’s campus as a ninth grader.
“It’s unbelievable,” Middleton said. “I never thought I’d come into high school and win three championships at the state level at that. It just feels unbelievable.”
Gabriel Stovall is sports editor for The Augusta Press. He can be reached at gabriel@theaugustapress.com. Follow him on X (Twitter), Instagram and Threads: @GabrielCStovall.
