OAKWOOD — The Gainesville High boys left no doubt that it was Hall County’s best — at least at this early junction in the season — with a 92-62 win against East Hall in the Lanierland championship game Thursday night at Johnson High. Now, the Red Elephants are ready to see if they can turn it into a successful showing in Region 8-AAA and a run at the state tournament.

Gainesville (8-4) jumped out to a big lead early against the Vikings with solid shooting, especially from Shaquan Cantrell and his 14 first-half points, and forced the Vikings into an uncharacteristically high number of mistakes on both ends of the floor and 16 turnovers on the night.

With the win, the Red Elephants snapped a 10-year drought as Lanierland champions.

"I’m just really proud of what our team has done," Red Elephants coach Todd Cottrell said. "They battled and competed so hard the entire tournament.

"Winning the Lanierland is a major goal for our team," said Cantrell. "Once we started seeing the shots fall, we started building confidence."

Cottrell said the biggest influence for his team this week was remembering and honoring Gainesville senior Patrick Kelley, who died in a car accident earlier this week.

Even though winning Lanierland comes with no guarantees for the remainder of the season, Cottrell said he likes the direction Gainesville is headed.

"We put a lot of work into this game," Cottrell said. "It was a total team effort."

"I think we have a good team, but we’re not where we want to be yet," said Gainesville junior Deshaun Watson, who finished with 10 points, seven rebounds and five blocked shots.

Cantrell scored six of Gainesville’s first 11 points with a 3-pointer and a pair of layups inside the paint. For the second consecutive night, he also came away with a slam dunk in the open court. He finished the game with 21 points and was named Lanierland Most Valuable Player.

Watson said defensively the emphasis against East Hall was playing press coverage and keeping a hand in the shooters face. It seemed to work. J.C. Hampton was the Vikings’ leading scorer with 16 and Joe Berry finished with 12. T.D. Teasley also made double figures with 10 points, all in the first quarter.

"I’m happy with how we played," said Watson. "That’s a good East Hall team that we faced."

Cantrell wasn’t the only forward for Gainesville that was contributing big underneath. Red Elephants junior Caleb Hayman (eight points, seven rebounds) followed his own miss with a basket to take a 25-11 lead in the final minute of the opening period. Also before the end of the first quarter, Gainesville point guard Tray Harrison made a basket on an inbound pass with no defenders guarding.

Javez Warren added a pair of second quarter 3-pointers for Gainesville, including one to put it up by its biggest margin of the first half at 45-21. He finished with 18 points for Gainesville.