With the outcome in doubt late in the Tennessee-Georgia boys’ high school all-star basketball game at Notre Dame, the ball seemed to keep finding its way into Jarod Rhodes’ hands. And he delivered.
Rhodes, who played at Cleveland and is headed to Lee University, scored the game’s final five points and that lifted the Tennessee team past Georgia 101-98 on Tuesday.
Tennessee had cut a four-point deficit in half when McCallie standout C.J. Reese, a Southeast Missouri signee who was selected the Tennessee player of the game, made two free throws with 36.6 seconds to play. Then Rhodes went to work.
He first converted a basket off a turnover on the inbound pass to tie it at 98. He had a chance to make it a three-point play but missed the free throw. Yet he managed to make a steal and get fouled again going up with a shot.
This time Rhodes made the first free throw and missed the second, but teammate Hunter Chastain, a Bradley Central graduate headed to play at Bryan College, grabbed the rebound. The ball again made its way around to Rhodes, whose basket inside with less than 20 seconds remaining ended up providing the final margin.