After winning three state championships during a four-year span that culminated in 2005, the Wheeler basketball program picked up its fifth state title overall, outdistancing Milton 73-53 in the Class 5A Championship Game at the Gwinnett Arena on Friday night. “I’m very proud of the effort the kids have given me the whole season,” said Doug Lipscomb. “Our support has been fantastic from the administration to the students to the community.”
The two teams, who both hail from Region 6, traded scores in the first period before Wheeler was able to open up a 13-point advantage late in the second quarter off an Ari Stewart putback of a missed shot. It was Stewart who shifted the momentum and got the Wheeler surge started earlier in the second, as he converted a couple of and-1’s to get the crowd on its feet. The Wildcats held a 29-18 advantage at halftime.
Feisty Milton cut Wheeler’s advantage to five in the third quarter after Stewart goal-tended a Dai-Jon Parker shot, but the Wildcats finished the period on another spurt, going on a 13-4 run to lead 47-33. “We just kept working and playing hard and good things happened for us,” Lipscomb said.
What Stewart helped start, fellow Wildcat senior Richard Howell helped finish by scoring eight of his game-high 20 points in the fourth quarter. He even threw an alley-oop to Stewart that brought the house down and pushed the Wheeler lead to 65-43. Stewart finished with 19 points. “They showed why they’re going to ACC schools,” Lipscomb said of Howell (N.C. State) and Stewart (Wake Forest). “They really showed why they are on that level of basketball.”
After losing in the playoffs to eventual state champions Norcross the last two seasons, Wheeler reassumed the mantle of 5A’s top team. Stewart says that last year’s loss was especially motivating for him and his team throughout the season. “We reminded each other not to let it be the same outcome it was last year,” he said. “Last year we lost to Norcross in the state championship game. It was the worst feeling. We all had sour tastes in our mouth. Everyday in practice we worked hard and played together and this is what we deserve.”
Stewart also says that the tough out-of-state schedule his team faced this season which included Mater Dei (Cal.), St. Patrick (N.J.), Lincoln, (N.Y.), St. Benedict’s Prep (N.J.) and Dominguez (Cal.), among others, helped prepare the club for its title run. “The level of competition we played only prepared us for what we had coming in the State of Georgia,” Stewart said. “We played all the top national teams. The teams we were playing were just as good, just as fast and just as skilled. We had to learn how to face adversity real fast if we knew we wanted to get this championship.”
After being held scoreless in the first quarter, Julian Royal led a Milton team that starts three sophomores and a freshman with 13 points. Sophomores Royal, Parker, who had 10 points, and Shannon Scott will have two more cracks at a state title. Freshman Evan Nolte has three more shots at a championship. “That’s a very good young team, so they’re going to be good for the next couple of years,” Lipscomb said. “So we’ve got to regroup.”
That may be the case, but for the next year, the Wildcats will be on top of Class 5A.
Butler can be reached at jbutler@scoreatl.com.
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