COLLEGE PARK, GA - Expectations are hard to live up to. Hype can build and the thought that something could be bigger and better almost always falls short of what people thing it can be. 

But not the Woodward Academy and Sandy Creek Elite Eight state playoff game on Wednesday night. The pairing of the two 4A powers didn’t disappoint. The star power game delivered in a mighty way and for the capacity crowd that packed into the small Woodward gym in College Park were treated to a historic night of high school hoops. 

The game paired five-star big men Walker Kessler of Woodward Academy and five-star junior Jabari Smith of Sandy Creek. A match-up of this kind of magnitude rarely happens. 

A pairing of five-star big men from Georgia has only happened twice in the last two decades. Dwight Howard of Southwest Atlanta Christian and Randolph Morris of Landmark Christian played each other at least two times a year in the early 2000s. 

A decade later Wheeler’s JJ Hickson and Norcross’s Gani Lawal would square off in the state playoffs. 

Now this match-up. Kessler, a McDonald’s All-American, is headed to North Carolina. Smith is a top five junior in the nation and will have his pick of colleges. Everyone in the gym knew the game would be centered around such a match-up. Everyone. 

The two paired up with each other at various points in the game. There were plenty of possessions where it was 5-star against 5-star. Kessler got hot early, scoring nine points in the first quarter. Then Smith responded in the second. The back-and-forth was outstanding to watch. 

Kessler finished with 33 points, 13 rebounds and three blocks. Smith finished with 25 points, 11 rebounds and five blocks. Both guys shined in their own skilled way. 

Down the stretch, Kessler was 6-9 from the floor in the fourth quarter and rattled off 12 points in the final eight minutes. 

“We knew this game and come down to five star versus five star and everyone on our team had faith in him that he would be the guy. We knew that he would close it out,” Woodward coach Anthony Thomas said after the game. 

Kessler was a catalyst, no doubt, and in a game where Woodward Academy and Sandy Creek are both state championship level teams, paired at a non-neutral site in the Elite Eight, you knew it would come down to who made the last shot. 

So, in the closing seconds Woodward’s Logan Stephens slipped behind the defense and Michael Whitmore found the junior for the uncontested game-winning bucket. 

Sandy Creek’s last-second heave hit the back rim, missing the game-winner by a matter of inches. 

The game was everything we wanted here in the Peach State. The pairing didn’t shy away from the hype. For those of us who packed into Woodward’s gym on a Wednesday night, we were lucky to see it. 

My conversation with Walker Kessler after @WoodwardBBall’s win over Sandy Creek. pic.twitter.com/ukCvtPNKxU

— Justin Young (@JustinDYoung) February 27, 2020