With LaFayette coming to the Cats Den on Tuesday night with the Sub-region 7A-3A regular-season title on the line, Dalton boys basketball coach Mike Duffie faced his worst nightmare — leading scorer Tristen Harrell was suffering from a fever, weak from a sinus infection.
Fortunately for the Catamounts and Duffie, Alexis Bautista doesn’t believe in the boogeyman.
Bautista had a pair of 3-pointers in the first quarter to give Dalton a lead that the Cats would never relinquish. Bautista finished with 16 points, and Harrell suffered the effects of his illness but still finished with a game-high 17 points as Dalton held on for a 56-49 victory over the Ramblers.
“(Bautista) is our secret weapon that we hope no one ever figures out,” Harrell said. “He can step up whenever we need him to. He shows up to play every night, and tonight he was huge.”
The victory wrapped up the sub-region title and gives Dalton a No. 1 seed for next week’s Region 7-3A tournament at Murray County, where the Cats will need just one win to secure a spot in the state tournament.
“It’s huge,” said Duffie, who even led the Dalton student section in a cheer in the waning seconds of the victory. “(Getting the top seed) is all of the difference in the world. You are playing a No. 4 or No. 5 in the game that gets you to state rather than having to play a No. 2 or No. 3. The big key is that you get away from Allatoona until the region championship game.”
The top seed from the Sub-region 7B-3A, Allatoona is 21-4 after Tuesday’s 92-54 win over Cedartown and ranked No. 7 in the state in the latest Ga.PrepCountry.com Class 3A coaches poll.
In this season’s first meeting between Dalton and LaFayette, the Ramblers bolted out to a quick lead and the Cats couldn’t recover.
The story was reversed for this meeting — Dalton was the team in command in the first half. Duffie had said coming into the game the key would be offensive rebounds and turnovers — both forcing and limiting — and the Cats (18-6, 9-1) did a better job of limiting the Ramblers on the offensive glass, allowing just 10 compared to the 19 that LaFayette had pulled down in January.
Tied at 10 late in the first quarter, Dalton put together its best run of the night to take control. Harrell sparked it with a three-point play with 21 seconds left in the period, and fellow senior Tre Beck’s putback gave Dalton a 15-10 lead at the break. Bautista then added a back-door bucket and scored off of a steal to stretch the lead to nine and force a timeout from LaFayette coach Tommy Swanson.
The Ramblers scored, but the run for the Cats was still on. Beck had a pair of free throws, and Bautista sandwiched a floater in the lane and a transition layup around a 19-footer from Harrell to give Dalton its biggest lead of the night, 27-14.
“Tristen is sicker than a dog,” Duffie said. “Most kids probably wouldn’t have even played, but we were going to ride his shoulders the way we have all year.”
Dalton was also helped by a poor shooting night from the Ramblers, especially behind the 3-point line. LaFayette was just 1 of 17 from behind the arc and only one player — shooting guard Jarrod Beaman — reached double figures, finishing with 16.
“(Dalton) did a good job of controlling the tempo of the game, and we turned it over,” Swanson said. “We have been streaky outside, and we just didn’t hit our shots tonight.”
Despite the big deficit, the Ramblers (18-4, 8-2) made a game of it in the fourth quarter. After a 3-pointer from Harrell with 3:13 left in the game, Dalton led 48-37, but as Dalton struggled at the free-throw line, Jordan Teems almost single-handedly pulled LaFayette back into the game.
He finally hit a 3-pointer for the Ramblers, scored in transition and sunk three straight free throws after being fouled on a 3-point attempt to cut the Dalton lead to 50-47. After a Dalton turnover, a LaFayette transition basket made it 50-49 with 1:07 left.
After a Harrell free throw, Beck came up with perhaps the biggest play of the game with a block from behind on a putback attempt, and Dalton also benefited from earning a possession on a jump ball. Rico Mears and Harrell both nailed a pair of free throws to finish the scoring.
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