Syrupmakers stick it to Spartans

Cairo proved Saturday night that it isn't how many shots you make, it's when they happen to fall.

On a night when neither team inflicted much damage to the gym's nets, center Uriah Hethington scored the winning basket with 3 seconds remaining to give Cairo a 38-36 win over Glenn Hills in the first round of the Class AAA state tournament.

Hethington scored on an easy putback after teammate Andrew Johnson picked Antonio Keller's pocket on the opposite end of the floor, then missed the transition layup. After Cairo's go-ahead score, Keller heaved a desperation half-court bomb that went awry.

"When you get to this part of the year, you want to advance," Cairo coach Isiah Chance said. "You don't care how you do it."

Saturday was, undeniably, a case in point.

The Syrupmakers led 3-2 with 1:44 left in the first quarter, and didn't lead again until the final bucket.

For three quarters, Cairo could have built pyramids with as many bricks as it threw up.

The team hit 4 of 30 shots (13 percent) in the first half, and 8 of 45 (18 percent) through three periods.

The Syrupmakers hit 15 of 61 (25 percent) shots in the game.

Even so, it wasn't as if Glenn Hills was marching away with the lead.

The Spartans (17-10), who shot only 31 percent in the game, stretched a seven-point halftime lead to 11 before Cairo begin to slowly chip away.

In the minutes prior to the game-winner, Hethington was certainly doing his part.

Glenn Hills could do little to guard him, despite double-teaming him, when he was on offense. And the Spartans were leery all night of going into the lane to face his intimidating defense.

The 6-foot-9 senior had 11 of his 19 points in the fourth quarter.

To put that in perspective, his teammates scored 20 - total. The entire team had 10 points at halftime.

"I was telling myself, 'Take over. Take this game,' " Hethington said. "

Rivals.com's ninth-best center prospect in the country also had 15 rebounds and five blocks.

A couple of those came down the stretch on breakaways when Keller, at 5-foot-7, couldn't get the ball over the big man.

"He wouldn't let you shoot the thing around there," Glenn Hills coach Richard Wallace said.

Keller led the Spartans with 18 points.

Forward James Wyatt was valiant in battling Hethington in the post, but giving away 6 inches wound up hurting in the end.

"For three periods, we sort of contained him," Wallace said, "but right there in that fourth period, they constantly went to him. And he constantly delivered."

Reach Travis Haney at (706) 823-3304 or travis.haney@augustachronicle.com.