THOMASVILLE — With proficient 3-point shooting, Jeremias Heard taking possession of the paint — and a little “Dumb and Dumber” — the Model Blue Devils are headed home with more basketball to play.
The Blue Devils upset the No. 7-ranked Thomasville Bulldogs 69-53 Saturday night.
With the win, Model (22-6) advances to meet Woodville-Tompkins. The Bulldogs, who had won 10 straight games, ended their season at 22-5.
“It means a lot to beat a highly-respected program like that,” Blue Devils coach Jacob Travis said. “For us to come down here and make the trip worth it, we believed.”
The Blue Devils led 44-41 at the end of the third quarter. At that point, the biggest lead by either team had been six points. There had been nine lead changes too.
But Model opened the final period with a decisive 10-0 run, as Dane Fisher and Derion Richardson each hit 3s. And the 6-foot-8, 260-pound Heard continued to pull down defensive rebounds and block Thomasville shots.
“We played really the last month,” Travis said. “It came down to whether we believed. We’ve got the inside presence and the outside presence to do it.”
Cole Mathis basket in the lane with 3:43 remaining in the game was the last field goal for Model. The Blue Devils, though, were 12-of-17 from the free throw line the rest of the way.
To keep his players in the right frame of mind, Travis resorted to his well of quotes from the movie “Dumb and Dumber,” clips of which he showed to the team on the long drive down.
“I quote ‘Dumb and Dumber’ all the time: ’Our pets heads are not falling off,’ keep playing,” Travis said.
Fisher led the way for the Blue Devils with 17 points. Jakenes Heard, who hit three 3s, had 16 points.
Richardson added 13 points, and Jeremias Heard scored 12 points.
The Blue Devils hit 10 3-pointers on the night.
Harrison Jackson, who had two dunks, led all scorers with 20 points. A.J. Dent had 16, and Tyson Anderson had 10 points.
Thomasville was held to just three 3s, and none from their usual top outside shooters of Anderson and Jeray Randall.
“We have two different zones, and we switched them some,” Travis said. “(Coach Ben Tillman) adjusted really well at one point. Then we switched the zone and made the passing lanes different. That’s a credit to our kids to able to adjust.”
