High school basketball player in Henry County is an inspiration Christian is on the autism spectrum and is the first person on the spectrum to make the Eagle’s Landing High School basketball team. Two years in a row....

McDONOUGH — One of the most electric seniors around Henry County had a lot on his mind as his season came to an end, but it wasn’t all bad. Keith Lamar sat down and caught up on the all-region honors and rivalries but even thinks ahead to college. But a part of what stood out the most happened to be the pressure a committed senior feels when stepping on the court daily. The first question that came to mind was if he or his teammate were snubbed in the all-region honors that are voted on by coaches in the county. It’s a simple question but loaded all the same and Lamar answers it as genuinely as he can. “I believe, well first, I know Jamaine had a good season,” Lamar said. “But I’m just not aware of everything that he did so I can’t really say. For me, I believe I should’ve won between me or Thrash.” When it comes down to on court rivalries, Lamar doesn’t think there was a rivalry with Dutchtown’s Cam Bryant either. It’s a given that competitors will be just that on the floor. “Me and Cam Bryant — I wouldn’t say we have a rivalry,” Lamar said. “We’re just really good competitors. Of course, it’s Dutchtown. It’s one of the best rivalries we have in the county and one of the best in the state. I look forward to it every time we play them.” Earlier in the season, the question of if Eagle’s Landing was a loaded team often came up, but head coach Elliott Montgomery said that’s not the case. Outside of Lamar and Thrash that is, Montgomery never knew how stacked the team was early in the year. “It’s been a long time since we’ve had two kids at this caliber — a long time,” Montgomery said. “We also have the young kid (David) Thomas but he’s a kid and him playing like he has at a school like this with the criticism he’s going to receive here is just tough. We’ve got AJ Barnes — another young kid. We’re just very young. Rodney Allen (is) a kid who played some last year but not a lot. When you guys say stacked, I still want to know, ‘who’s my sixth man coming off the bench?’ Nobody knows because I don’t even know half the time.” On the other end, Lamar says otherwise. He acknowledges that the team didn’t have star power but he believes this season’s program was solid. “I wouldn’t say we were not loaded,” Lamar said. “We may not have the names, may not have the big names. But we have the people who play their roles.” But the season is over and those who missed a chance to see Eagle’s Landing play, may have missed out on seeing a team that had the power to make it far. The seniors are now getting ready for college. This includes Lamar, who is preparing to head to Stetson and continue his athletic career. But what about the pressures of being a committed senior in high school? That’s a question that isn’t often asked but Lamar is willing to answer. “It’s something you have to be very thankful for,” Lamar said apprehensively. “It’s pressuring. One of the big things between me and my family was that we wanted to get it over with before school ball started. That doesn’t mean you rush the process.”...

McDONOUGH — It’s been a few years for Eagle’s Landing baseball to be a considerable threat in the county but that shouldn’t deter fans from watching one of the oldest teams in the county perform. This season’s team should be considerably talented under head coach Ronney Daniels. Of their six returning starters, four of them stand out. Seniors Francisco Arraut and Marquis Smith headline the program while two juniors in Wayne Wilkerson and Larry Blackwell shore up the rest of the lineup. The new expectations for 2020 are simple according to Daniels. The team will be expected to have mental toughness, give effort and win. Don’t expect the team to be the only thing that’s grown. “I’ve grown a lot from last year,” Daniels said. “I’m more patient, have more knowledge of the game and most importantly understand my kids’ skill set.” According to MaxPreps.com, the Golden Eagles finished 5-16 last season overall with a 2-12 region record....

A battle between two teams went to overtime during the Monday night makeup game before a crowd of over 1,000 people. But each and every last fan in the stands was in for a treat between the top two teams in the region. A late 3 from Keith Lamar followed by a jumper from Kameron Hobbs for Dutchtown took a nice game into overtime and a winner had to be decided. Depending on where your allegiance laid, the Elliott Montgomery-led Eagles won 87-80. However, maybe this was the time where Montgomery believes he should have called a timeout, one where it may have prevented overtime from happening. The early shots from Eagle’s Landing potentially foreshadowed the night as neither side was a clear cut winner early in the going. Eagle’s Landing began the game on a 4-0 run, but it was soon evident that Cameron Bryant wasn’t going to let the Bulldogs fall behind. A 3-pointer from Bryant kickstarted the Bulldogs and the game was just getting started. In what could be considered a collegiate atmosphere featuring a raucous crowd, the first quarter pretty much set the tone. “We hit a shot, we go 4-0, we got shook up,” Montgomery said. “At the end of the day, remember, we’re talking about 17-year-old kids — in a college atmosphere. This was not a high school atmosphere, this was a college atmosphere and that’s what happened.” Errors by Eagle’s Landing were the biggest factor at the start. Ball handling was not as sharp as normal which magnified Dutchtown’s ability to get the lead back on fast breaks. The only thing that the Golden Eagles had to do was shoot their way out of the hole they dug, but the cold shooting in the first quarter magnified the ball-handling errors that led to the first big lead of the game. After the first quarter ended, Dutchtown led 22-1. And at the time, the eight points were the biggest lead seen between the two teams. However, nothing was decided yet between the two sides and the second quarter proved it. During the second quarter, it was apparent that neither side was ready to roll over. Eagle’s Landing cleaned up some their earlier issues with ball handling but they also began to attack the Bulldogs differently to pull back into contention. The Eagles scored more in the second quarter than Dutchtown but it only led to a tie that equaled 35. But it all came down to patience for Montgomery. “The blessing for me coaching girls soccer is that I’ve had to learn patience,” Montgomery said. “In basketball with the pace of the game going up and down you don’t learn patience. Soccer has taught me patience and I realized all you need is four quarters. So we go down 13.” But it wasn’t just Eagle’s Landing attacking that had Montgomery looking at the game differently. “They did a great job against us, attacking us,” Montgomery said. “If you watch video or watch (Dutchtown’s) Kameron Hobbs play, he’s getting to the basket. He’s getting there. You’ve just gotta make him uncomfortable and that’s what we did.” No one was a clear leader though and the players weren’t as dominant as billed. (tncms-asset)054bd12e-310b-11ea-bfd5-d3656cc52fed(0)(/tncms-asset) Eagle’s Landing fell back as far as 13 in the third quarter but despite being down 53-46 with 1:45 remaining in the third quarter, the Eagles found a way to rally back, due in part to changing their defensive scheme on the fly. But it was a timely call from a coaching buddy be Defensively, the Eagles went from a man-to-man look and evolved it to a 3-2 zone. Something that Eagle’s Landing didn’t have at the start of the game. “My good friend Jeff Crawford called me and said to me, ‘Montgomery, they shoot the ball well’,” Montgomery recalled. “He called me before the game and said we’d have to probably go 3-2. The problem with 3-2 when you’re Hobbs off the line that interior guy has to step up and take a charge. But then he hits that floater. When we started to take the ball out of his hands and we made Bryant handle it — he started forcing shots. Did us swapping defenses help, yes.” The defensive swap led to the Eagles finishing the third quarter down 57-50 but it was clear that the game was far from over and the momentum was beginning to ramp up. After a technical foul began the quarter, the Eagles were off to a rocky start. Just four points in the first minute was soon matched by Dutchtown’s five points. Despite a series of ties throughout the fourth quarter, the Eagles had a chance to walk out the gym and avoid overtime with a Lamar three. That three came after Dutchtown’s Jermaine Mann fouled out but the moment that may have turned the game was a timeout that Montgomery didn’t take. That timeout was something he reflected on and believes he should have called at that time. “That was bad coaching,” Montgomery said. “When Lamar hit the three, I should’ve called timeout. One because I know I’ve got two extremely young kids who’re into the crowd and into the game. That was my fault. Lamar hit that big three, that was an NBA three. And I blew it. I should have called timeout because I knew then we got them. If we played defense.” Maybe it would have changed the outcome of the fourth quarter but ultimately, the two teams went to overtime after Hobbs hit a nice jumper in the final few seconds to force the overtime. But Montgomery still believes a timeout would have been the turning point of the final quarter. “Yes, and this is why you have to slow Hobbs down. I knew that and when Lamar hit the three, my problem was I only had one left,” Montgomery said. “My dad says you never go to bed with them timeouts but with a group like this you might have to. Because if Hobbs hits one and they get the ball back I could have used it there. When you have young guards you have to hold a timeout.” The overtime period was pretty solid from the start. Both teams had four minutes to break the 71-point deadlock. However, throughout the overtime period, it was clear Mann’s absence was felt. The Eagles led 78-76 with 2:30 minutes remaining and never relinquished the lead again. Ultimately, Eagle’s Landing won 87-80. ...

Rematches are everything in basketball on the high school level, teams that win one are often challenged to win a second time. It was another overtime game Saturday night for the Dutchtown Bulldogs and Eagle’s Landing, but the difference this time, was all in Kameron Hobbs’ ability to find holes and make finesse touches around the rim to gather momentum. Trying to limit the damage the whole team can do often leaves holes on the floor, holes that Hobbs exploited. Hobbs scored 36 points in the victory over the Golden Eagles, but he didn’t become a presence until the second quarter. Dutchtown set a tone from the outset, using a deep shooting approach. The Bulldogs had to find their own way to the hoop and Hobbs, Cameron Bryant and Jamaine Mann found it on back-to-back-to-back 3-pointers. It led to the zone defense Eagle’s Landing ran around the hoop to fall into Dutchtown’s pace. Even so, the Golden Eagles fought back in their own way in the first quarter to tie and eventually take the lead. But it wouldn’t be for long, as Dutchtown left the first quarter up 20-19. In the second, Hobbs heated up and Eagle’s Landing ultimately cooled down. For Dutchtown, the second quarter was all Hobbs. After scoring just three points in the first, Hobbs became an offensive catalyst scoring 15 of the 25 team points in the second quarter. But Eagle’s Landing adjusted. The game began to get intense in the second half as the Golden Eagles heated up with David Thomas leading the team’s efforts. But it was still unclear how the game would end. While the 63-49 game looked to be a write-off, Eagle’s Landing began to make a comeback. Thrash ignited the offense, and both sides ultimately deadlocked. The game was anew once more. This time, four players began the overtime period with four fouls apiece. Lamar of Eagle’s Landing had four fouls but Dutchtown was faced with four fouls on Bryant, Mann and Isaiah Placide. The offense ultimately died out on itself for the Golden Eagles, and a part of it was due to a foul on Lamar that sent him to the bench. But the Bulldogs rode Hobbs’ hot hand to ice the game. “Thought it was another great atmosphere against a great team. Coach (Elliott) Montgomery and his staff are doing a great job with those guys,” Dutchtown head coach Jordan Griffin said after the game. “Tonight, I thought my guys were locked in and ready to play in a big time region game. Proud of the seniors and all they have put in this season. We had an opportunity to quit, and this team keeps fighting and finding a way to win. Hats off to Eagle’s Landing; they are going to be a force to deal with come postseason. I’m proud to be the coach here at Dutchtown.” ...

Eagle's Landing High boys’ basketball has been a top team in Henry County for many years but when it comes down to this season, don't call them stacked around head coach Elliott Montgomery. "We have some talent, but in 2013 we were stacked," Montgomery said. "We got a lot of question marks this year." Those questions marks are behind the two front-runners of the program in Kirshon Thrash and Keith Lamar, and that's not to take away from either of the two who could single-handedly take over a game. For Montgomery, the pair of Thrash and Lamar are great to have around the program because it's been a long time since they've had two go-to players who play at a high level. "It's been a long time since we've had two kids at this caliber - a long time," Montgomery said. "We also have the young kid (David) Thomas but he's a kid and him playing like he has at a school like this with the criticism he's going to receive here is just tough. We've got AJ Barnes another young kid. We're just we're just very young. Rodney Allen, a kid who played some last year but not a lot. When you guys say stacked, I still want to know, who's my sixth man coming off the bench? Nobody knows because I don't even know half the time." But even with the youth, the Golden Eagle's hold a 12-1 record and although they didn't face Dutchtown earlier this year due to a power outage before the winter break. The games against the Bulldogs probably won't change how they work even though there may be some pressure on the opposite side of it all. "Dutchtown is a really good team with veteran experience and I don't have to name them. You can name them and everybody reading this article will be able to name them," Montgomery said. "In my opinion, this game means absolutely nothing only because it's the first of maybe three meetings. I say maybe, I didn't say anything but maybe - maybe three meetings." The Golden Eagles haven't soared to the state championship game since the dream run of 2013 but each player that's graduated has a tie to the next set of rising athletes. For Montgomery, he says it's fun to know that players like Jordan Sessions and many others who've gone on to play college and even professional basketball come back and assist from time to time. "It's not like kids who've done good things and don't come back," Montgomery said. "These kids have relationships with those guys. I mean we're blessed right now to have were them come here and want to help with the freshman team. Jordan Sessions comes here before he leaves to go to China. Trevin Joseph called to come and work out with these kids." Over four years, Eagle's Landing has gone 90-24, that's a run that many coaches would dream of. But not for Montgomery exactly. There isn't any pressure on him as the coach to reach the state championship game, a game that's been taunting the program for the past six years. A passionate no will be the first thing that Montgomery will say when pressure to return to the state championship game is mentioned. "Most coaches if they could win 90 games in four years would love it but for us, it is a great thing that we've won games, but it doesn't weigh on me, but it's time. And with this group, I must admit to you this group can do it," Montgomery said. "They're good enough to do it. They are. With no pressure from them or their parents. I told them this, you know, we haven't won a state championship and put it on the coach. Because when you win, as I told you before, when you win - it's because you got good kids. And when you lose it's the coach’s fault, so we have not been as successful because of me as a coach. And we are going to do better. And I believe that this year is the year. I do believe it."...