But for the Ramblers' shooting guard, the quality mattered much, much more than the quantity.
Buck's 3-pointer late in the third quarter quelled a Bulldog rally, and his back-to-back treys midway through the fourth jump-started the decisive Rambler run as the Orange-and-Black pulled away for a 49-35 victory in a North Georgia Athletic Conference battle.
Rossville trailed by four after the first quarter, but got a 3-pointer from Jaylen Shelton and a driving lay-up from Tavian Bridges to take their first lead of the game, 17-16, with 3:42 left in the half.
Kardarrin Ramsey answered with a bucket for LaFayette, but the Bulldogs would score the last five points of the half with Cadarius Ward's 3-point play capping a 12-2 that gave Rossville a 22-18 advantage at intermission.
The Ramblers would score six straight points as part of a 10-1 run to open the second half, but two quick baskets by the Bulldogs chopped the lead back down to 28-27 with time winding down in the third quarter.
That's when one of the smallest players on the floor made his presence felt in a big way.
Buck drained his first three-ball with 33 seconds left to put the Ramblers up by four to start the final quarter, and they led 35-31 when he ripped 3-pointers from the wing on consecutive possessions to boost the lead to eight with 4:11 left.
Bridges tried to keep Rossville in the game with a driving lay-up, but Ramblers' center B.J. Leming went to work inside, scoring three straight times in the paint to push the lead to 12 with just under two minutes left. Leming added two free throws with 1:04 remaining to polish off the game-ending 13-4 run.
"We finally starting hitting some shots and moving the ball better than we did in the first half," said LaFayette head coach Seth Cardwell. "We were trying to make (Rossville) shoot from the outside in the first half, but we weren't staying in our zone very well. Luckily for us, Brandon got hot. Those two 3-pointers in the fourth really got us going and B.J. Leming came through for us late. They were big difference-makers for us."
Leming had 10 of his 18 points in the fourth quarter while Buck finished with nine important points and Ramsey had eight.
Bridges had 15 points for the Bulldogs while Shelton ended his night with nine.
Cardwell said his team still had work to do if they were to make noise in the upcoming NGAC Tournament, which begins at Ringgold in early February.
"I think if we can start to click a little more on offense, and start seeing things a little bit better, we might have a shot to make run in the tournament," he added. "But we've still got things we've got to get better at before then."
The day's matinee saw the Lady Ramblers outscore the Lady Bulldogs 18-2 in the first half en route to a 49-12 win.
Shayla Ludy and E.J. Ratledge had eight points each for LaFayette. Kaitlynn Broome and Kaite Cain each had six points while Broome's points coming on two 3-pointers.
Cheslea Gill paced Rossville with six points.




