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The LaGrange Academy boys basketball team has waited a long time for moments like Wednesday. The Warriors hosted Atlanta Jewish Academy for the first round of the GIAA state playoffs and earned a 60-51 win in the process in front of a packed house.

“This place is the best,” LaGrange Academy’s head coach Britt Gaylor said, staring out at the crowd that cheered his team on for four quarters. “I knew from my first time here that we have the best support of anybody in the community. We wanted to get it back to that, and we worked tirelessly for the last three years. And it’s just amazing to see that and see the support from all the students here. They were amazing. And then people from the town, it’s just a special thing to have, and we’re so blessed to be able to keep playing.”

The game would come down to the wire. The fourth quarter featured six lead changes and two ties as momentum swung back and forth.

The Warriors would eventually snatch momentum for good when Kayde Bradfield nailed a 3-pointer that gave the Warriors a 49-48 lead with 3:20 left in the game. From there, the game would never be tied or see a Jaguar lead from there.

“I live for those kinds of moments, I was feeling so hyped and just feeding off the crowd’s energy,” Bradfield said. 

“I might have been just a little nervous,” he added with a smirk. 

Bradfield was immense in the fourth quarter, scoring nine of his game-high 21 points in the period. 

“I’m one of the leaders for this team, so whatever the team asks me to do I will do it,” Bradfield said. 

Bradfield certainly had a ton of help in the form of Owen Sells and Alex Jarvholm. Sells scored 14 points and his presence on the offensive glass and in the post helped decide the game.

“It felt like every time I was down there they had like four guys around me, so I just had to use my strength and just try to out-jump them,” Sells said.

His coach had high praise for him after the game. 

“He does all the little things. He guards the other team’s best big guy, and battles under the basket,” Gaylor said. “Tonight we didn’t shoot the ball very well, and he just kept crashing and crashing and crashing and all of his work in practice really paid off tonight. A lot of games he will be crashing hard and we will be making shots so it goes unnoticed, but not tonight.”

Sells has been there and seen it all in his two seasons with the Warriors and his emergence this season has helped fuel the remarkable turnaround. 

“To go from one win last year to this is special,” a wide-eyed Sells said. “This feeling is like fireworks on the Fourth of July. It feels like it’s a dream.”

Jarvholm, the leader of the team, scored 16 points.

The Jaguars started the game on the right foot, scoring the first five points of the game. The Warriors would answer right back with a dominant 15-2 run to take their first lead of the game.

AJA never retook the lead in the first half. LaGrange Academy would eventually push the lead out to double-digits (26-16) with 5:40 left in the first half.

The Jaguars would not go away quietly and closed the gap to just three points (31-28) heading into halftime. 

AJA would eventually tie the game with 2:50 left in the third quarter and take its first lead since the early minutes of the first quarter just seconds later (37-35).

Freshman Grayson Salter would hit a massive 3-pointer with under a minute to go in the third to give the Warriors a 38-37 lead, but the Jaguars answered with a two-point basket at the buzzer to retake the lead.

“We were getting to the rim and just not making shots and I think we were starting to get a little flustered and then he hit that shot and it just kind of calmed everybody down,” Gaylor said. 

It was a hard-fought quarter with the LaGrange Academy offense really struggling to click, scoring just seven points in the third. 

The Warriors will travel to Tattnall Square on Saturday to take on First Preparatory Christian Academy in the second round of the state playoffs.

“Tonight was a team win and that is what we are going to have to have on Saturday,” Gaylor said. “They are athletic and are going to press us and we are really going to have to take care of the ball and shoot better on Saturday. As long as we do that it’s going to be a good game.”