Clinch County ends 37-year title drought behind sophomore’s 25-point effort

MACON — With four seconds left and the game well in hand, Traviian Miller could easily have dribbled it out. Instead the sophomore took a couple of long strides and slammed it home at the buzzer, hanging on the rim long enough to do a little circle before he dropped to the floor and began a long-awaited celebration.

There was plenty to be happy about. Miller had a double-double — 25 points and 12 rebounds — to lead Clinch County to a 63-43 win over Portal in the Class A Division II championship at the Macon Coliseum.

It had been 37 years since Clinch County won its last state championship in 1989 and almost a year since the Panthers came up short in the Sweet Sixteen. This time Clinch left no doubt, outscoring Portal 35-19 in the second half to the pleasure of the large crowd of red-and-black clad fans who had made their way up from Homerville.

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“It’s just awesome to be able to come and be victorious,” coach Terrence George said. “It’s been a long time coming for us and it’s been a long time coming for me. I’ve been a coach for 21 years now, just working and driving each day, trying to be a successful basketball coach and today it happened.”

Miller, the quarterback for the football team, also added three assists and two blocks to his stat line. Jakyri Posley, a junior, had 15 points and seven rebounds and junior Kamarion Johnson finished with 10 points and four assists. Clinch County (29-3) won its final 12 games of the season.

“Tonight, Traviian came out and had a great game for us,” George said. “The good thing about it is we’ve got three guys and it’s tough to defend those three guys on a night-in, night-out basis.”

Portal (26-6) got 16 points and six rebounds from David Thomas and 10 points and six rebounds from K.J. Hunter. But the Panthers wilted from distance, making only 3 of 22 3-point attempts.

The teams traded the lead a couple of times in the first quarter, which finished tied 12-12. Portal led by five points with 3:12 remaining in the second quarter, but didn’t score the remainder of the half. Clinch finished on a 9-0 run that was punctuated by Miller’s late 3-pointer that provided a 28-24 halftime lead.

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“We were talking all week about how we were going to face adversity and we were ready for it,” Miller said.

Clinch County kept building on its momentum and stretched the lead to 10 when Miller made a pair of free throws to make it 35-25. Miller hit another free throw with one second left to send Clinch into the last quarter with a 44-30 lead.

Portal scored the first two baskets in the fourth quarter to make it a 10-point game, then George called timeout to settle his team down. Clinch returned to score 10 straight and had a 20-point lead with 3:33 left.

“I’m so proud of my kids,” George said. “It’s great the whole city turned out. I think a lot of shops closed down. All the support has been great.”