Defending 6A champion East edges Southeast 67-66

If you ever wondered what it’s like to step to the free-throw line, your team down one point with just seconds left and a packed gym screaming at the top of its lungs, let East junior guard Michael McKinney be your guide.

“To be honest, I just kind of blacked out,” McKinney said. “I ignored every single voice in the gym and focused on making two shots to get my team the victory.”

And in this case, the blackout effect worked as McKinney made two free throws with 7.6 seconds left to lift defending Class 6A champion East to a 68-67 over Southeast in the Aces’ season opener.

“(McKinney) stepped up and had some icewater in his veins,” East coach Joe Jackson said. “The first one got a little rim, and the second one just dropped. Clutch, without a doubt.”

East looked sharp after losing four starters off last year’s team, with only 6-foot-6, 255-pound senior Xavier Kelly back. East’s plan was to get the Clemson football recruit the ball in the post as much as possible — something the Aces struggled with in the first half even though they took a 35-30 lead into the break.

“Xavier didn’t get near as many touches as we wanted in the first half,” Jackson said. “And Southeast did a great job sagging off and helping on Xavier.”

East and Kelly started off the second half hot — he scored seven points in the third quarter and the Aces built a 52-40 lead with three minutes left.

Southeast stormed back behind big games from senior Jerrick Harding, the two-time City League scoring champion, and sophomore Israel Barnes, who transferred in from Sunrise Christian Academy. The two sparked a late rally in the third quarter that cut East’s lead to 54-47 headed into the final quarter.

“I don’t know if you can call it first-game jitters or what, but we have some things to improve on,” Jackson said. “We didn’t execute well in a lot of places, got sped up offensively and took some quick shots.”

When East made mistakes, Southeast (1-1, 1-1 City League) was there to capitalize. The Buffaloes took the lead 60-59 on a basket from Harding with 3:20 left and the teams traded leads eight times down the stretch.

After D’Andre Franklin’s free throw put Southeast up 67-66 with 18 seconds left, McKinney drove the lane and was fouled on the ensuing possession, setting up the game-winning free throws.

Southeast turned the ball over on the final possession, with East’s Mark Hartley diving on a loose ball after Barnes coughed it up past half-court.

“I’m disappointed, because we got away from our principles, mainly on defense,” said Harding, who finished with a game-high 23 points. “We had our chances to win tonight, we just didn’t capitalize.”

Barnes finished with 20 points and 12 rebounds, while Franklin chipped in with 10 points. Kelly finished with 16 points, 12 in the second half, to go with nine rebounds. Zion Fralin added 16 points for East (1-0, 1-0), while McKinney had nine points and five assists.

“I thought we did good in spots, we have a lot of potential but we’re not close to where we can be at yet,” said Kelly, who has given top-ranked Clemson an oral commitment. “We did a good job overall, but there’s still a lot of improvement that needs to be made. I thought in the second half we played with a lot more intensity.”

This story was originally published December 8, 2015 at 11:19 PM with the headline "Defending 6A champion East edges Southeast 67-66."