MILLEDGEVILLE, GA — Clyde Zachary has been on the Crawford County sidelines so long he’s coached generations of families. Over the years his philosophy is pretty simple. Why overcomplicate things? 

His simple strategy won out in a 61-51 victory over Holy Innocents’ in the quarterfinal round of the Class AA state playoffs in Georgia on Friday evening. 

Crawford County had the lead for 31 minutes and 59 seconds in the Elite 8 game. And defensively, the Eagles made things tough for their Atlanta private school. 

“We just try to get after people and to do their job. We tell them to trap and rotate like they are supposed to,” Zachary said. “Sometimes we play pretty good defense. Sometimes we don’t.” 

On Friday, his team was pretty good. Holy Innocents’ struggled to find any rhythm outside of senior forward Brent Duncan, who led the way with 19 points and scored at will inside. The war was won on the glass for Crawford County. Junior forward Marcal Knolton was the catalyst in the victory. 

The 6-foot-6 junior was great on the glass, ripping down 14 rebounds and blocked five shots in the process. He turned several of his rebounds into second-chance points. He had 14 points in the win. 

“He’s the one who makes our defense go. Our offense, also,” Zachary said. “We like to play inside-out and he is developing into a pretty good post player. When teams pay attention to him, it gives our outside people some looks.” 

Crawford County senior point guard Monkenzie Moore was the fastest player on the floor and ripped a couple of steals at midcourt line. He turned them into points and opened things up in the second half with his end-to-end speed. 

“I think we were just a little bit quicker taking them to the hole,” Zachary said. 

Moore finished with 11 points, four assists and four steals in the win. Senior wing Will Jerrell was the team’s Swiss Army knife in the win. He finished with 17 points, five rebounds, four assists, three steals and two blocks. 

Holy Innocents’ had 10 points each from juniors Cole Smith and Jules Erving. 

Crawford County will play the winner of Pace Academy-Thomasville on Saturday.