COLUMBUS — Buford girls coach Gene Durden was hesitant to proclaim it his team’s most complete game of the season.
But the facts are hard to dispute after a 88-50 destruction of Griffin Saturday in the Class AAAAA semifinals at Columbus State University.
The Lady Wolves (28-2) forced 28 turnovers, ran its motion offense to near-perfection as 11 different players scored, and eight different players recorded at least one assist.
Durden reluctantly conceded this much: “We’ve been playing very well the last three or four games and I thought the girls played hard and executed well most of the game. I thought our press really hurt them.”
Buford now will take on Class AAAAA defending state champion Southwest DeKalb, a 66-63 winner over Flowery Branch in the other semifinal, Wednesday in the finals at 6 p.m. at Stegeman Coliseum at the University of Georgia.
The Buford press was as devastating as it has been all season. After Audrey Weiner knocked down a 3-pointer to open the game for the Lady Wolves, the defense went to work creating three quick Griffin turnovers to spark a 8-2 run for an 11-4 lead. Griffin had five turnovers in its first seven possessions.
But the Lady Bears, behind Cincinnati-signee Andeija Puckett, stormed back. Puckett pumped in 10 points on the offensive end and swatted away four Buford shots to ignite a 12-4 run for a 14-13 Griffin lead late in the period. However, the Lady Wolves responded closing out the period with a 5-2 run for an 18-16 lead. They would not trail again.
Buford continued its defensive lockdown opening the second quarter with a 10-2 run off three more steals to grab a 28-18 lead. The Lady Bears had nearly as many turnovers (12) as points midway through the second quarter.
“They were playing us man-to-man and we thought we could do some things and the girls executed pretty well,” Durden said.
Puckett fueled another Griffin run to pull the them within 33-27 but the Lady Wolves finished the half on a 6-0 spurt or a 39-27 advantage at the intermission.
Griffin finished with 15 turnovers in the first half. Buford had just five.
But as dominating as the first half seemed, it was nothing compared to what awaited in the third quarter.
Snoody Johnson sparked things with seven points in a 15-2 Buford run on four more turnovers to open the second half for a 54-29 lead. They continued the assault forcing six more turnovers in the next four minutes and used that to build 71-36 advantage heading into the fourth quarter.
“The beginning of the third quarter I thought was the key. We kind of broke their backs in the first few minutes of the second half with our press,” Durden said.
Buford never let up even when putting in the reserves over the final four minutes. The Lady Wolves led by as many as 40 at 84-44 in the final minute.
Tory Ozment led the way or Buford with 14 points and five assists. Johnson finished with 11 points and three assists. Jessica Nelson and Weiner had 10 points apiece and Rachel Dobbs and Marissa Bruce chipped in with nine points each for the Lady Wolves.
Puckett paced Griffin (28-2) with 16 points but just four after halftime. Daisya Reid ha 15 points for the Lady Bears.
