North Clayton junior Marcus Hunt scored 17 of his game-high 25 points in the second half as Hillgrove coughed up an 11-point third-quarter lead and lost 60-52.

Hunt was the main beneficiary of a frenzied full-court press that sparked a 26-7 North Clayton run and eliminated the Hawks' hopes of winning the Lake City Classic championship at Allatoona High School.

The run was aided by what Hillgrove head coach Edward Morris perceived as a lack of consistency from the game's referees.

"I'm not going to blame the officials, but in the first half they called everything when they put their hands on us," he said. "We didn't get any of those calls in the second half. We just have to learn to play through that, and we didn't do that. We turned the ball over, over and over against their pressure."

North Clayton took the lead with one minute left in the third quarter on a bucket by Lexus Hill. The Eagles then extended that lead to nine points with four minutes left in the game, thanks to a run of five consecutive possessions in which Hunt either scored or assisted on a score.

Dominic Early led Hillgrove with 20 points and nine rebounds. He hit four free throws down the stretch and briefly cut the North Clayton lead to 53-50. But Hunt hit  five of six free throws in the final minute to prevent any hopes of a Hillgrove comeback.

For Morris, the loss boiled down to his team's second-half collapse in the face of the North Clayton full-court press.

"We're not going to win games if we can't handle pressure," he said. "We've got to use this as a learning experience to get better at that because we're going to see that in our region."

The loss puts Hillgrove in the tournament's consolation game against Lithia Springs. That game is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Thursday.