By KEVIN ECKLEBERRY

Daily News

ATLANTA – A strong St. Pius squad put an end to Troup’s season with a 66-46 victory on Thursday in the second round of the Class AAAA state tournament.

The Tigers (15-12) finished with a winning record under first-year head coach Blake Craft, and they reached the second round with a dramatic win over the Northwest Whitfield Bruins last week.

Troup was hoping to pull the upset on Thursday, but it wasn’t meant to be against a Blessed Trinity team that is now 26-3.

Troup was down 18-13 after the first quarter, and it trailed 34-25 at the half and 53-38 through three quarters.

In his final high-school game, Region 5-AAAA player of the year Jarrious Jefferson led Troup with 22 points, Kobe Hudson and Makeon Heath added seven points apiece, and Andy Boykin scored six points.

Jefferson enjoyed an outstanding career, and Craft was grateful for everything he did this season.

“I can’t speak enough to what he did this year,” Craft said. “He had a great senior year. You could tell he was fully invested the entire year.”

Troup started quickly, jumping out to a 6-0 lead with Jefferson making three straight baskets, but St. Pius answered with a 10-0 run to take the lead.

Troup trailed by as many as 12 points in the second period, but it hung tough and was within nine at the half.

St. Pius maintained a double-digit lead for most of the third quarter, and it led by 15 points heading to the final period.

Troup came no closer than 14 points in the fourth quarter.