Druid Hills sweeps region double-header

Druid Hills High School’s boys’ and girls’ basketball teams used second-half runs to sweep Stone Mountain High School in a region double-header on Dec. 5 at Stone Mountain.

In the boys’ game, the Druid Hills Red Devils had an 11-3 run in the final 3:41 to hold off the homestanding Stone Mountain Pirates 73-61 to complete a Region 6-4A sweep.

Leading 55-41 to start the fourth quarter, the Red Devils (6-4, 1-1) got a three pointer from Malki Grey and a layup by Austin Walker to extend their lead to 19 at 60-41 with 7:41 to play.

Stone Mountain (2-3, 0-2) responded with a 17-2 run to close the gap to 62-58 with 4:15 to play. Back-to-back threes by Zack Collins and Malik Hinton completed a 10-0 spurt to cut the lead to 60-51.

Druid Hills Elonzo Miller got the Red Devils’ only basket during the Stone Mountain surge to make it 62-51. Stone Mountain’s Jeremiah Leslie answered with a 7-0 run of his own that included three steals to cut the lead to four.

Quasim Prophet hit a layup for Druid Hills that would start the final push. Miller added a basket on a feed from Prophet to push the lead back out to 10 at 68-58 with 2:43 to play.

Walker led Druid Hills with 16 points and five rebounds, followed by Josiah Marsh with 15 points and nine rebounds, and Miller with 12 points and nine rebounds.

Stone Mountain got a team high 15 points from Hinton, 12 points from Khalib McClendon, and 11 points from Collins. Jeremiah Leslie finished with seven points, nine rebounds and four steals.

(Girls) Druid Hills 53, Stone Mountain 43
After trailing 34-36 with 38 seconds to play in the third quarter, the Druid Hills Lady Red Devils scored the next 17 points to take command on the way to a 53-43 Region 6-4A road victory in the opener at Stone Mountain.

Stone Mountain (2-5, 0-2) rallied from a 31-22 deficit by making three three-pointers. The first was from Makayla Wilson and then back-to-back threes by Ameria Williams tied the game at 34. Nyhla Warren followed by sinking two free throws with 38 seconds left in the third quarter to give Stone Mountain its only lead of the night at 36-34.

Skylon Forrest put Druid Hills (3-3, 1-1) back in the lead for good with a layup and a three in the final 27 seconds to make it a 39-36 advantage for the Lady Red Devils heading into the fourth quarter.

Druid Hills’ Anisa Brailsford scored six points in the first 1:01 of the fourth quarter to aid a 13-0 run to open the quarter – putting Druid Hills up 51-36.

Stone Mountain got a three-pointer and layup from Wilson but could only get within 51-42 with 1:45 to play. Tiara Jones added a pair of free throws with 1:03 to play as Druid Hills closed out the win.

Brailsford finished the night with 26 points and 18 rebounds to lead Druid Hills. Forrest added 13 points; Jones added six points and nine rebounds.

Wilson had 15 points and six rebounds to lead Stone Mountain and was joined in double figures by America Williams and Shameon King.