ATHENS – The Winder-Barrow Middle School boys basketball team made history Friday, just not as much as they would have liked.

The Bullpups became the first ever No. 4-seed to play in the Quad County Middle School Basketball Championships, although they fell short of a championship.

Winder-Barrow lost to top-seeded West Jackson 56-30 at Kings Bridge Middle School, finishing second in the tournament.

For the Bullpups, just reaching the final game was a big achievement, although the players and coaches expected nothing less.

“We knew we could get here,” said WBMS Head Coach Corey Sims. “It’s tough to play up from the bottom, but we’ve definitely got heart.”

The way they made it to the championship game may have caused a few heart attacks.

After coasting by No. 5 Kings Bridge on Monday, Winder-Barrow played as underdogs the rest of the tournament.

On Tuesday they went to No. 1 Westside, who had lost just one game all year, and shocked the Huskies 59-58 in overtime.

Wednesday the Bullpups headed to overtime once more, emerging with a 42-40 victory over No. 3 Malcolm Bridge to reach the championship game.

Coach Sims said afterward that the players looked a little tired, not surprising after the week they had.

Battling fatigue, WBMS made a game of it in the first half.

Starting guard Christian Hodge opened the scoring on a put-back attempt early in the first quarter. Although the eighth grader was held out of the basket the rest of the way, Hodge added a team-high 10 rebounds.

EJ Henley put the Bullpups ahead 4-1 midway through the first quarter, and then WBMS point guard TJ Jackson took over.

Jackson scored a team-high 16 points on the night, but he was countered by the Panthers trio, including guards Xavier Harper and Nick Corso,and forward Chase Duffy.

Corso hit a trey to tie the game at 4; he would finish with 10 points.

With West Jackson holding a 12-10 lead early in the second, Harper and Duffy made layups before Harper sank a trey for a 19-10 advantage.

Although Winder-Barrow got within five soon after, the Bullpups never recovered from their opponents 9-0 run.

Harper, meanwhile, scored a game-high 22 points, while Duffy added 15 points, 18 rebounds and four blocks.

Bullpup Markesio Anderson had a tough job trying to contain the much taller Duffy, while the Panther’s forward held Anderson to just four points.

Winder-Barrow couldn’t do enough to counterattack West Jackson’s height advantage, but finishing second isn’t bad for a team that finished the regular season seventh out of 10 teams.

And now, after four games in five days, the Bullpups finally get a chance to rest.