While always expecting a big effort out of its go-to-guy Manny Atkins, Tucker got a timely contribution from another Tiger. Atkins scored a game-high 28 points and Chris Kingsberry stepped up down the stretch as Tucker came from behind to defeat Bainbridge, 72-66. “Chris has been in a slump and has been looking raggedy for the past five or six ball games,” said Tigers head coach James Hartry. “We told him at practice yesterday, just shoot the basketball, shoot it and stop worrying about it and thinking about it, and I think tonight he was a little bit more comfortable and he shot the ball real well for us.”
With Atkins struggling from the field, Kingsberry helped Tucker stay in the game in the first half with 10 points, including two 3-pointers in the final minutes of the half that helped the Tigers cut what was a 10-point deficit at one point to 37-33 at the intermission. “I wasn’t trying to be a star, that’s Manny’s job,” Kingsberry said. “I just get behind my captain and just do the little things.”
The Bearcats lead at halftime was four points only because a Marquis Williams 3-pointer swished through the nets for Bainbridge in the closing seconds of the half. Williams then opened the second half the same way he closed the first, with a 3-pointer, and the Bearcats went up by seven. Undeterred, Tucker fought back and regained the lead at 44-43 on a couple of Atkins free throws with a little over three minutes left in the quarter. The teams fought back and fourth, before Kingsberry gave the Tigers the lead for good, draining another 3-pointer to make the score 52-49 as the third quarter ended.
“I haven’t scored in the last two games. I haven’t really done anything in the playoffs,” Kingsberry said. “Coach told me yesterday, just go home and focus, practice on looking my shot through. That’s all I did.”
Atkins, a Virginia Tech signee, got his game going in the fourth quarter, scoring 14 points and sealing the game with his free throw shooting. Still, for most of the night, he had to work hard to put up his numbers. “My coaches told me that my shot’s not falling so I need to get inside and work there, and that’s when I can work my way out until my shot can start coming,” Atkins said.
One thing Hartry was not pleased about was Bainbridge’s quick start to the game, leading to a big early lead. “It was nothing new to us,” Hartry said. “It’s just that the coaching staff expects for us to not even go through that because we’ve been going through it all year. We need to go out and hit guys and keep going.”
The Tigers did respond to the test positively, however, something else they are used to doing. “We knew that if we stayed in the game and stayed focused that this team could not stay in front of us because of my scheduling, and the region [we’re] in,” Hartry said. “I just didn’t think that they had seen what [we] had seen all year.”
Williams led Bainbridge with 23 points. Tucker moves on to face Region 6 rival Miller Grove on Friday at the Arena at Gwinnett Center at 4:45 p.m.
“I’m looking forward to it. I’m excited,” Kingsberry said about the thought of playing in a championship game.” “I just hope we win.”
Kingsberry may be excited, but on Wednesday night, his Tucker comrades were excited to have him on their team. “He stepped up big,” Atkins said. “He told me before the game that he was going to be here, because he really didn’t show up the last few games. He told me this game he’s going to come up big and he knocked down some big shots and I love him for that.”
Butler can be reached at jbutler@scoreatl.com.
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