Snipes' 4th-Quarter Explosion Lifts Wheeler

rolled into the quarterfinals of the AAAAA Georgia High School Association boys basketball tournament Wednesday night with a 73-56 home win over a determined but overmatched Archer team.

As usual, Wheeler had a balanced attack, with five players scoring between eight and 19 points. As usual, the Wildcats had explosive streaks in which they scored at will inside and out and stifled the Tigers with pressure defense the full length of the court. As usual, the Wildcats had lapses that gave Archer hope and prevented the home crowd from ever feeling safe. As usual, a hero stepped up in the second half to take charge for the Wildcats and secure the win.

What was different this time in the half-filled Lipscomb Gym was the identity of that hero: Nigel Snipes.

The senior forward-center, often overshadowed on a guard-driven team with much-larger junior Chuck Mitchell occasionally dominant inside, took charge in a crucial fourth-quarter stretch after Archer cut a 20-point lead to 11, 49-38.

Snipes was fouled on a layup and converted the traditional three-point play, then made a steal in the backcourt and drew the foul on a dunk for another three-point play. Back on defense, he rejected a Tiger shot in the paint, then hit a jumper for a lightning-fast 8-0 run almost on his own.

After Kharon Butcher nailed a 3-pointer to put Wheeler up 22 and Archer answered with a pair of baskets, Snipes scored a layup when Tevin Reeves slipped a sneaky pass around two defenders under the basket, and the Wildcats led 62-42 with about five minutes to play.

But Archer, which brought a boisterous crowd from Lawrenceville, wasn’t done. Snipes took a seat with his fourth foul, opening the door to a final Tiger roar even though Wheeler extended the lead to 64-42 with four minutes left.

The Tigers scored 10 consecutive points in the next two-plus minutes until Wheeler Coach Doug Lipscomb put Snipes back in with 1:44 left to play. The Wildcats regained their composure, and Butcher and K.K. Simmons nailed pressure free throws to secure the win.

Snipes finished with 19 points, all but 17 of them in the second half. While the Western Kentucky signee was dominant in the paint, he also had a 3-pointer. Simmons had 14, including eight in a row during his own offensive explosion in the middle of the second quarter that lifted Wheeler to a 31-13 halftime lead.

Butcher had 13 of his 16 points in the second half, including all six foul shots he took in the fourth quarter. He also hit three of the Wildcats’ eight 3-pointers.

Reeves had two 3-pointers among his eight first-half points and finished with 10, as well as that impressive fourth-quarter assist to Snipes. Derrick Evans added eight points while running the Wheeler offense.

Archer, a second-year school that recorded its first-ever playoff win against West Forsyth in the first round of the playoffs Saturday, kept coming back in the second half despite lacking Wheeler’s size inside and struggling against the Wildcats’ press defense. Bryan Hamlet led the Tigers with 18 points, 16 of them in the second half. Jermaine Morris added 14, and Dinesh Brown had 12. The Tigers finished the year 14-17.

Wheeler, which improved to 24-6, has won 10 in a row since losing consecutive games to and Milton in January.

Wheeler plays Saturday at 5:30 p.m. at the University of West Georgia in Carrollton against its biggest playoff rival of the past decade, Norcross. The Wildcats defeated the Blue Devils 73-68 at home Dec. 4.