It's a team that won't be nationally ranked because it lost nine games this season. Still, most anyone who watched the
Norcross boys basketball team down the stretch knows it wasn't the typical nine-loss team.
By the time March blew in, Norcross was playing like a Top 25 team nationally.
Norcross defeated Milton – then ranked No. 3 in the
MaxPreps Xcellent 25 boys basketball rankings presented by the Army National Guard – 59-55 last week to win Georgia's Class AAAAA. It was Norcross' fourth state title in six seasons, but perhaps the most unexpected.
MaxPreps Georgia boys basketball playoff bracketsMaxPreps list of boys basketball state champions from across the countryWith a team of three Division I signees, Norcross gelled in the final weeks and won its last 17 games.
"The biggest thing that allowed us to wins some games recently was we established three go-to scorers in
Chris Bolden,
Josiah Moore and
E. Victor Nickerson," McMillan said. "All three can score in different ways. Our point guard player
Derrick Herbert improved. He understood what we [were] asking, just enough scoring to keep things honest. Then we could rotate quite a number of kids on the post, doing a great job on boards and defensively."
Bolden, a junior guard and the team's leading scorer, has committed to Miami. He scored nine of his 11 points in the fourth quarter in the win against Milton, during which Norcross came from 10 points down in the final six minutes. Bolden scored 26 points in the semifinal win over Valdosta.
Moore, a senior guard, has signed with Nebraska. Nickerson, a 6-7 small forward, has signed with UNC-Charlotte. Herbert, the point guard, is a transfer from a small private school, where he had been a big scorer. He became a floor leader with his new team.
The final piece was
Alonzo Nelson-Ododa, a 6-8 power forward who transferred from Winder-Barrow. He was the true post player that Norcross lacked in 2010, when it lost to Milton by one point in a quarterfinal.
"We match up perfect with Milton," Moore had said before the finals.
Moore was the lone freshman on Norcross' roster in 2008, when Norcross won the third of three straight state titles with Al-Farouq Aminu, now in the NBA. Moore felt the newest champion is better than the '08 team, certainly better than the '10 team that won 24 of its last 25 games.
"It's mostly size," Moore said. "We are deeper at every position."
Still, the losses piled up early. Eight of the nine were by seven points or fewer. All were to out-of-state teams or those ranked in Georgia's Top 10 at some point.
"It was realy difficult," said Nickerson. "At one point we felt like we were making a turnaround, then would lose two more games. We kept having these little team meetings."
Some of those team meetings were about relationships and chemistry. Nelson-Ododa spent some time suspended because of an altercation during a practice. His return to the lineup changed the face of the state playoffs, making Milton no longer a shoo-in.
The team that fans saw in the finals was tightly knit and confident. It survived several Milton runs, one that appeared deadly, putting Norcross in a 49-39 hole in the fourth quarter.
‘'We made a lot of strides to learn how to win ball games," McMillan said. "That team last year understood how to win games late in the stretch. There were a lot games that were very close and they pulled them out. That's what pleased me about this team. We showed a lot of maturity. [By the end], I thought we could compete with every team in the state, absolutely."
