Hillgorve's Mike Lawrence provides the Hawks with senior leadership.

The Hawks from Hillgrove swooped down on No.1 ranked Rockdale County and caged up any hopes the Bulldogs had on winning a state championship beating them on their home court in the second round of the Class 4A State Championships.

Univ. of Tenn signess Kevin Ware did not have one of his banner games for Rockdale County.

Hillgrove did a good job early on of containing Rockdale County's all-state performer and Univ. of Tennessee signee Kevin Ware; on the offensive end of the floor Stefan Julian would drop 8-points to help the Hawks take a 23-9 lead.

The Hawks starting creating some unnecessary fouls in the second-quarter that forced them to sit two of their star players and when they did just like most bulldogs when the see a bone they go after it and that's what Rockdale County did.

Bernard Thompson would play the role of the lead bulldog drilling back-to-back three-pointers to cut the lead to nine; then during a mini run he would add six more points as Rockdale County took their first lead of the game. At the half the Bulldogs led 35-33.

Rockdale County would extend their lead to 50-44 in the third-quarter behind the scoring of Darion Clark and Byron Lawrence.

Ware who had a quite night threw down to powerful dunks as the forth quarter got underway and at this point it felt as if the home team was on their way to the Elite 8... but as Lee Corso would say "Hold you horses".

Stefan Julian scored 20 pts and played solid defense for Hillgrove.

After a timeout Hillgrove put together a 9-0 run, getting a pair of baskets from Julian and a put-back from Armand Jackson that would tie the game at 54-54.

In an unfamiliar move Rockdale County Head Coach Alvin Williams pulled the reins in on his fast-breaking Bulldogs; the move backfired and played into the hands of Hillgrove as the Bulldogs struggled to run sets and started turning the ball over.

Hillgrove turned those turnovers into points and a 62-59 lead with less than :30 seconds to play. Rockdale County now out of sync would manage to score one more point as Hillgrove held on to upend the Bulldogs and move on to the Elite 8. The Hawks will now travel down the rod to West Georgia College to take on Mays.

The Final Score Hillgrove 64 – Rockdale 60

Scoring Recap
Hillgrove: Stefan Julian paced the Hawks with 20 points and Darion Clark added 17.

Rockdale County: Bernard Thompson scored 18 to lead the Bulldogs. Darion Clark added 17 and Kevin Ware finished with 13.