TIFTON — Rashod Bateman made all but one of his baskets in the third period of Thursday’s Tift County-Berkmar game, but they were big ones as the Blue Devils advanced to the state Class AAAAAAA quarterfinals with a 72-55 win.

Bateman hit four three-pointers in three minutes after Berkmar had whittled a seven-point Tift halftime lead to two points with 5:25 remaining in the third quarter.

Ian Hardy’s basket made for a 31-29 score and the Devils were in further trouble when Marquavious Johnson picked up his fourth foul 40 seconds later.

The Patriots were unable to score, however, and Micah Johnson whipped a pass to Bateman on the left side of the court. Bateman’s three-pointer went in at 4:31 and Tift had a bit of breathing room.

Berkmar failed to score on its next possession and Micah Johnson found Bateman again, this time in the right corner for another three-ball.

A backcourt violation went against Berkmar and Bateman hit his third three-pointer for a 40-29 lead.

A stunned Berkmar finally pulled together a pair of shots by Hardy and Zach Cooks, but Bateman would close the period when he pulled up for his fourth 3.

Up 43-33 going into the final frame, Tift continued its run with free throws from Preston Horne, Micah Johnson and a dunk by Fred Lloyd.

Berkmar then found its offensive groove again, but could only trade baskets with Tift the rest of the way.

Tift jumped out to a 4-2 lead in the game before Berkmar tied it on free throws from Ben Soumahoro. That would be the only time the Patriots were even with the Devils all night.

Horne scored two straight baskets to end the first period, one on a three-pointer and one on an alley oop dunk off an assist by Micah Johnson.

Already up 17-10 at the end of the first frame, Tift expanded it to 22-10 a minute into the second off a three-pointer by Montae Terrell.

Al Durham and Cooks kept it from being a runaway with a shot and free throws, holding the Devils to a 26-19 intermission lead.

The Berkmar comeback that fell just short in the third began with a Durham three-pointer that closed the score to 26-22. After a Tift basket, Cooks also hit a shot from three-point range. Hardy scored twice for a 31-29 deficit before Bateman got hot.

Micah Johnson topped Tift in scoring with 18 points, Horne close behind with 17.

Outside of Bateman’s massive third quarter, he hit one other basket for a total of 14 points.

Terrell added nine points and Lloyd contributed eight.

Tift limited Berkmar’s big scorers for most of the contest.

Cooks scored half of his 22 points in the fourth quarter. Durham, an Indiana University commit, nearly did the same, scoring six of his 16 in the final period, all on free throws.

Durham was further pestered by fouls. He had none at halftime, but accumulated four during the second half.

Hardy finished with 10 points for Berkmar, whose season ends at 21-8.

Tift improved to 26-2 and moves on to play either Newton or Westlake in the quarterfinals. No final score had been reported Thursday night from that contest.