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The Toombs County High School basketball season ended one game short of the Region 3 Tournament. The Lady Bulldogs lost to East Laurens 47-25 in the first region play-in game in Lyons. Ashley Polke topped TCHS with nine points and Bessie Pittman added eight. The Bulldogs, who were down 10-0 after the first quarter, rallied and took their only lead of the game on a Bobby Joe Mincey bucket with 1:20 to play in the game. However, the 29-28 advantage didn't hold up. Bleckley County hit two three throws and won the game 31-29. Senior Alex Jenkins scored nine points. Watch Highlights Video
For head coach Benny Dees, the game was the final one of his career. Dees informed his team at the end of the regular season that he was ending his long coaching career. Dees had two runs at TCHS. He assisted head Coach Donnie Arrington during an amazing run that saw the Bulldogs win back-to-back region titles and then after serving as head coach at Jeff Davis (where he stopped a long losing streak with a win over Telfair County), Dees returned to Lyons as an assistant and then replaced Arrington as head coach when he left to take the Effingham County job.
Dees, a Montgomery County native, had a long, successful career at all levels of amateur basketball. He was a high school, junior college and Division 1 head coach. Dees was the first head coach when Virginia Commonwealth went Division 1 in 1968. He went 12-11 and 13-10. Dees next head job was at New Orleans and he lead the Privateers on the best run in school history winning 42 games and losing just 16 and he took UNO to the NCAA Tourney and won a game 83-79 over BYU in the opening round in the 1987 tourney. Read Sports Illustrated Story
Benny, a Wyoming graduate, next coached his alma mater for six seasons and won 104 games and earned another trip to the NCAA Tourney. Dees' 1987-88 Wyoming team went 26-6 and was ranked 13th in the final AP Poll and 14th in the UPI top 20. The Cowboys were featured on the front cover of Sports Illustrated's College Basketball Preview Issue. Read Feature Story Also, check out another SI Story on Wyoming
Dees was also a head coach at Western Carolina and just like he did at VCU and UNO he rebuilt the program from scratch and went 26-30 in two seasons with Southern Conference Player of the Year Frankie King (Appling County High School). Dees was a successful Division 1 assistant at Georgia Tech, Western Kentucky and Alabama.
Dees joined the Alabama staff in June of 1981 and assisted head coach Wimp Sanderson during a fantastic Tide run. Alabama won a SEC Tournament title in 1982 with a 48-46 win over Kentucky in Lexington. The Tide made four trips to the NCAA Tourney and advanced to the Sweet 16 twice. In the 1982 NCAA Tourney Alabama (a four seed) beat St. Johns 69-68 in the second round and then lost to the eventual national champions in the Sweet 16. North Carolina beat Bama 74-69 in Raleigh, North Carolina. Matt Doherty and James Worthy eached scored 16 points for the Tar Heels. Sam Perkins added 15 and a young Michael Jordan scored 11 by hitting three-of-six shots from the field.
Of course Coach Dees has always been known for his ability to say something witty and he has been quoted many times by the national media.
Los Angeles Times, April 2, 1987
Benny Dees, head basketball coach at the University of New Orleans, was an assistant coach at the University of Alabama when Charles Barkley was a star at Leeds (Ala.) High School.
Says Dees: "Coming out of high school, I never thought Barkley would make it. I figured he'd gain 60 pounds and become a slob. So he gains 80 pounds and becomes a superstar."
Sports Illustrated- They Said it, February 22, 1988
Wyoming basketball coach, bemoaning a recent slump by the Cowboys: "It was so bad my travel agent called me with a play—and I wrote it down." | 
