A year after losing in the state final in heartbreaking fashion, Pebblebrook will get another shot at its first title in basketball.
The seventh-ranked Falcons (23-9) earned a return visit to the Class AAAAAA championship game with a 77-70 victory over Milton in the semifinals Saturday at the University of West Georgia. They will play at 8:15 p.m. Saturday at the Macon Coliseum against third-ranked Westlake, which advanced with a victory over Newton earlier in the day.
Pebblebrook’s Collin Sexton scored a game-high 35 points. He got off to a slow start with just three points in the first quarter, but he had 15 in the second to help the Falcons take the lead for good. His back-to-back 3-pointers put Pebblebrook in front 24-18 midway through the quarter, and the Falcons maintained a lead of seven to 13 points the rest of the way. Sexton, a junior transfer who not a member of the runner-up team last season, scored 62 points in two games in Carrollton this weekend.
Pebblebrook lost to Wheeler 59-58 in the 2015 championship game on two free throws by Jaylen Brown with 0.5 seconds remaining.
Only five Pebblebrook players scored against Milton, but four of them were in double figures. In addition to Sexton’s 35, Jatrious Smith scored nine points in the fourth quarter and finished with 20. Jared Harper had 11, and Dwight Murray added 10.
Milton (23-9) led 5-0 in the opening minutes after a 3-pointer by Justin Brown and a basket by Chris Lewis, but Pebblebrook closed the quarter with a 14-6 run to lead by three points heading into the second. Lewis did his best to keep the Eagles close with 10 second-quarter points and a nice assist on a dunk by Kyrin Galloway, but Pebblebrook extended the lead to 40-33 at halftime.
Kendrick Summerour hit a couple of late 3-pointers (four overall) and scored 18 points to lead Milton. Lewis finished with 16, Brown had 15 and Alex O’Connell added 13.
