Both the Fayette County boys and girls are on the verge of becoming the first basketball teams in school history to win a state championship.

The Fayette boys defeated the Miller Grove Wolverines 76-68 in the Class AAAA semifinals Wednesday to advance to the state championship game Friday afternoon at the Gwinnett Arena.

Fayette’s girls also were victorious in the Class AAAA semifinals, holding off the Madison County Lady Red Raiders in the final seconds for a 45-44 victory to move on to the title game Friday afternoon at the same location.

In the boys game, Miller Grove’s Mfon Udofia went coast to coast and scored on a layup to cut Fayette’s lead to 60-58 with 3:09 remaining in the fourth quarter.

Then Fayette's sharp-shooting combo guard, Noel Johnson, who picked up his fourth foul less than a minute into the final period, delivered the biggest shot of the game, a 3-pointer that sparked a 9-0 run that featured four points from Brandon Boykin.

Fayette’s run seemed to deflate the reeling Wolverines, who were down by at least six points the rest of the way.

“When Noel picked up his fourth foul in the fourth quarter, we had to weather the storm with seven minutes left to play,” Fayette coach Andre Flynn said. “We didn’t give up. We kept fighting and kept fighting and pulled away.

“We were resilient. That’s the thing about us all year, teams have made runs at us, but we sty focused, keep our composure and finish games strong. I’m so proud of these kids.”

Fayette was the aggressor early, going on a 16-0 run in the first quarter to take a 16-4 lead. Johnson sparked the run with 10 points, including a picturesque fadeaway shot from the corner with a defender draped all over him.

The Tigers led by at least six until Miller Grove scored six consecutive points late in the second quarter to trim Fayette’s lead to 25-22.

Shooting guard Aaron Rushton came off the bench and gave Fayette a lift, hitting back-to-back baskets — a baseline jumper and a mid-range jumper — to ignite an 8-0 run in the final two minutes of the first half, which concluded with the Tigers leading 35-24.

A 3-pointer by Johnson and a layup by Cuincy Carruthers pushed Fayette’s lead to 14 (42-28) midway through the third quarter, Fayette’s largest lead of the game.

Johnson closed the quarter with an NBA-range 3-pointer at the buzzer to put Fayette in front 51-43.

Miller Grove went on to tie at the game at 52 on a putback by Obitaiya Edwards with 5:19 remaining in the fourth quarter, and it pulled within on on Stephen Hill’s layup following a steal close to a minute later.

But Fayette held off the Wolverines the rest of the way.

The Fayette’s boys had a balanced offensive attack against Miller Grove. Johnson led Fayette with 29 points and 10 rebounds, Carruthers added 16 points and Boykin had 15 points, a team-high nine assists and six rebounds.

Udofia scored a game-high 30 points to lead Miller Grove, which had two other players score in double figures, Hill (13) and Edwards (11).

The girls game came down to the wire, and Madison County had a chance to pull out the victory, but Tiawanna Allen missed a layup at the buzzer.

Fayette’s players and coaches stormed the court, celebrating its biggest win in the school’s girls basketball history.

“Everybody told me that Madison County was going to be tough,” Fayette coach John Strickland said. “No one wanted to give us a chance. We wanted it, and they wanted it, and it turns out that we’re going for what we want, the state championship.”

Fayette led by as many as five following a jumper off the glass from Jenee Brooks with 1:07 remaining in the fourth quarter.

But back-to-back baskets by Madison County — a baseline jumper by Allen and a layup by Shantydra Arnold following a steal — cut Fayette’s lead to 45-44 with 40.1 seconds left.

After a turnover by each team, Fayette’s Kristene Walker was fouled with six seconds to go.

Walker’s free throw was off the mark, and on its final trip down the court, Madison County failed to end Fayette’s remarkable season.

The game was close throughout, with neither team holding a lead larger than six, held twice by Fayette, 29-23 at the end of the first half and 37-31 late in the third quarter.

“Last week we played in a tight game and won by one [45-44 over Northside, Warner Robins in the quarterfinals], and we won by one tonight,” Strickland said. “It was a tough game. We couldn’t get that run that we normally get on a team.”

Anma Onyeuku scored a team-high 16 points, including eight consecutive points in the third quarter, pulled in seven rebounds and had six assists; Tessah Holt scored 12 points and had six rebounds and five assists; and Walker added seven points and six assists for Fayette.

The Fayette girls will play top-ranked Southwest DeKalb at 3 p.m., and the Fayette boys will play Columbia at 4:45 p.m.

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