By: Eddy Gifford, Publisher

The Dade County Wolverine basketball season came to a heartbreaking end last week as they lost their final two games by a total of four points.

On Tuesday night the Wolverines traveled to Rome to face the Rockmart Yellow Jackets for the region championship. The Wolverines had lost their earlier meeting with the Yellow Jackets 76-75.

The Wolverines were down by one with just over a minute left in the first quarter when the Yellow Jackets went on a seven point run to take the lead 22-14 after one quarter.

The Yellow Jackets opened up a 13 point lead early in the second quarter before the Wolverines got on track. A nine point run by the Wolverines got them back in the game and at the end of the first half trailed only 34-30.

Fighting hard the entire third quarter the Wolverines managed to tie the game several times but were never able to take the lead. A three point shot by Andrew Houts tied the game at 52 as the third quarter came to an end.

The Wolverines seemed to be on their way early in the fourth quarter as they quickly built a six point lead, 58-52. They held the lead until the two minute mark of the game when the Yellow Jackets went up 69-68.

The Wolverines had several chances to retake the lead as the Yellow Jackets hit one of three free throws but the shots didn’t fall.

With 47 seconds left Andrew Houts tied the game with a pair of free throws but the Yellow Jackets scored the final points of the game with 14 seconds remaining to take a 72-70 win and the Region 7AA Championship.

Travis Core led the Wolverines with 20 points. Andrew Houts added 15 and Ben Patton scored 10.

The loss gave the Wolverines the second seed in the first round of the state tournament and the home court advantage for the first round.

The Westminster Wildcats from Region 6AA and their third seed came to Trenton on Friday night.

One of the largest crowds of the year filled the Dade County gym as the Wolverines looked to advance in the state tournament.

The Wolverines were shocked when the visiting Wildcats came out firing away and scored the first nine points of the game in the first two minutes.

Down 9-0 the Wolverines went to work and tired the game at 9 all at the 4:48 mark and the crowd seemed to relax as the Wolverines they had watched all season came to life.

The two teams swapped baskets the remainder of the quarter and midway through the second half the Wolverines were up 31-30.

Over the final four minutes of the first half the Wildcats outscored the Wolverines and headed to the locker room with a 48-36 lead.

That lead would grow to 16 points early in the third quarter as the Wolverines struggled against the much taller team from Atlanta.

After getting the lead down to 10 Travis Core hit a long three point shot at the end of the quarter to make it a 66-59 game with eight minutes left.

The visiting Wildcats left the door open for the Wolverines as they had trouble at the free throw line – hitting only 7 of 16 fourth quarter attempts. The problem was that the final two were made after the Wolverines had tied the game at 81.

The first one was made with 22 seconds remaining and then the second one with one second remaining to secure the Wildcat with 83-81.

It was a heartbreaking way to end a great season in which the Wolverines won 25 games against only 4 losses.

Travis Core led the Wolverines with 28 points while Andrew Houts hit five three point shots and finished with 26 points. Andrew Reid blocked five shots and Core had 8 assists and 5 steals.

When all the first round games were finished Region 6 sweep Region 7 as Chattooga lost to Decatur 58-43; Blessed Trinity downed Rockmart 65-42; and Greater Atlanta Christian defeated Temple 87-27.

On the girls side it was more of the same as Region 6 swept Region 7 with Buford defeating Model 63-43; Lovett defeated Armuchee 59-41; Blessed Trinity defeated Pepperell 61-57; and Greater Atlanta Christian defeated Calhoun 55-29.