LILBURN, GA -- It is no secret that Berkmar basketball has the players in place to do some damage in 2014. On the team's final game in 2013, all of the pieces showed why the Patriots could be a team that marches to Macon.

Paced by the 1-2 punch of seniors Tim Rowe and Kiair Crouch, Berkmar held off a second-half surge from Morgan County to hang on for a 61-53 win over Morgan County to claim the Nike BMASP Holiday Hoops Classic on Monday night.

Rowe was outstanding down the stretch and shined in his match-up with his former travel teammate C.J. Turman, a Tennesee signee. Rowe said he played with a little extra motivation against the 6-foot-9, 235-pound manchild.

"I have to prove something. This is a good opportunity to do that. I think I did that today," Rowe said.

He certainly did. Rowe scored 14 points in the second half and seemed to always have an answer to a Tookie Brown bucket for Morgan County. Brown, who scored 35 points against St. Francis the game before in the tournament, scored nine points in the third quarter and helped rally his team back into the game.

 "I noticed Tookie was about to take over and he's good at doing that," Rowe said. "I wanted to put it on myself to help stop that."

Brown was held to four points in the fourth quarter and finished with 17 points, 10 points below his average. That's a credit to senior James Sanders, who defended Brown as well as anyone this season.

Crouch, the tournament MVP, was also great for the Patriots. The 5-foot-11 speedster scored 15 points, grabbed seven rebounds and had five assists in the win. Georgia Southern bound guard Jonathan Sanks score d11 points, grabbed four rebounds and had three assists.

As a team, Berkmar played great.

"We've been playing really well as a team. We're in sync right now. I think it is just chemistry. The longer we play together, the better we are," Rowe said. "And then when we listen to the coaching, we're going to do better. We're all being coachable and it's working for us to the end."

For Morgan County, Turman was good in his match-up against Rowe, too. He finished with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Sophomore wing Jaylen Ingram finished off a good December with 12 points and eight rebounds in the defeat.