DALTON, Ga. – When your region games count twice, every contest is, well, doubly big.
When the final horn blew and the last of Nasir Porter-Love’s 38 points had been put in the scorebook, Tuesday night’s 83-70 win over a team recently ranked No. 2 in Georgia’s Class 6A could prove to be a defining moment for the Dalton Catamounts in a strange, quirky season.
Dalton (18-4, 12-0) is considered “isolated” from the rest of the Atlanta-area region schools by the GHSA, so it has to play Region 6-AAAAAA teams only once each. Therefore, each game counts as two, meaning Tuesday night’s encounter with former region top dog South Cobb likely would decide the regular-season champion one way or the other.
The visitors led by seven as late as the four-minute mark of the second quarter, but Porter-Love and super-sub Jalen Westfield quickly took care of that. Porter-Love had six points and Westfield hit the first of his six 3-pointers in a 11-2 run that gave Dalton a lead it would never relinquish.
Westfield, who ended with 20 points, hit another trey and Nick Hurt had a putback to end the half with the Catamounts up 33-29. Porter-Love, who had 19 points in each half, encouraged his teammates to not let up.
“We had to stay in it because we knew they were capable of coming back,” he said later. “All we’ve heard all season was how good they were and I knew some of the guys over there, so I told the guys we had to play with high intensity and always communicate.
“A lot of people have been underestimating us, so this means so much for this team.”
Porter-Love opened the second half with five quick points, Westfield another 3-pointer and Aaron Fraire a free throw as the Cats’ margin grew to 43-32. The lead wasn’t safe, however, and a series of runs by each team followed.
South Cobb’s Abram Gladney scored all of his seven points in a two-minute span that quickly cut the difference to five with three minutes left in the third quarter. But Dalton’s Ahmaad Tanner drove for two and Westfield followed with back-to-back 3-pointers for a 53-40 lead.
“We answered their runs,” Dalton coach Mike Duffie said. “I love these guys’ hearts. They play so hard and they are iron men. Aaron Fraire was diagnosed with the flu today, and he played 32 minutes. Ahmaad Tanner was diagnosed today with a severe sinus infection, and he did not come out.
“That’s the type kids they are, and that’s how much these kids mean to each other.”
South Cobb (18-5, 12-3) had one more run. Trevin Wade, who led the Eagles with 21 points, had a pair of steals and layups to spark a run capped by Nick Dubois’ theft-and-two that pulled the Eagles to within six with 3:39 still to play. Porter-Love, though, drove hard for a layup, Tanner followed with another tough drive and Porter-Love officially put the visitors out of their misery with a 3-pointer.
“This was just an outstanding performance.,” Duffie said. “They got it back down to six, but Nasir answered right back and we settled it.
“What do you say about Nasir? Wow. At times he just took the game over. Their No. 2 (Wade) started face-guarding him and took him out of the game for about six minutes, but then, wham, he just took over again.”
Dalton can clinch the regular-season title and a bye into the tournament semifinals with at least one win in its final two league games.
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6296; follow on Twitter @youngsports22.