OAKWOOD — The White County girls, already one of the most improved teams in all of northeast Georgia, will now get a chance to make history on Saturday.
The Lady Warriors knocked off host West Hall 58-51 Thursday in the semifinals of the Region 7-AAAA Tournament. Now, they will try and capture their first region crown since 1984.
They will take on No. 1 seed Marist on Saturday in the 7-AAAA finals.
White County coach Jarvis Davenport, in just his second season in Cleveland, had a hard time containing a smile afterwards. He has guided the Lady Warriors to 14 wins and counting after managing just 6 all of last season.
“This is why I came here,” he said. “I felt we had the talent and we needed a couple of years. I can’t say enough how proud I am of the girls and the effort they are giving us. We’ll see if we can make some history (on Saturday).”
In other semifinal action Thursday night at West Hall, the Marist girls held off an upset bid by Chestatee for a 43-34 victory in the other girls matchup. In the boys, Marist stifled White County in a 51-42 victory while No. 1 seed Blessed Trinity opened its game against West Hall with an 11-1 run and never looked back in taking a 72-45 win over the Spartans.
The finals will be Saturday at West Hall with the girls championship game at 6 p.m. and the boys scheduled for a 7:30 p.m. tip. The consolation action will begin at 3 p.m.
WHITE COUNTY GIRLS 58,
WEST HALL 51
The Lady Warriors clinched their first-ever home playoff game with a wild victory over the host Lady Spartans.
The two teams combined to for 54 turnovers, 55 free throws and four players combined foul out.
In the end, it was a 15-0 White County run in the second quarter to break a 19-19 tie that was the difference. The teams had traded four leads and two ties in the first quarter with the Lady Spartans holding a 15-12 lead. They led 17-14 on a Anna McKendree stickback basket but White County’s Dasha Cannon tied the game at 19 with a driving basket midway through the second quarter.
The Lady Warriors defense forced seven West Hall turnovers in the decisive run and had a 34-19 lead with 3:11 left in the half when the smoke cleared. They trailed just once more for 10 seconds the rest of the way.
White County coach Jarvis Davenport said the key was keeping the high-flying Lady Spartans, and McKendree in particular, off balance.
“(West Hall) can score so we changed defenses a lot,” Davenport said. “I thought we did a good job of limiting them as much as we could. We got the big run and then just tried to hang on.”
After going more than three minutes without a point while White County (14-11) sprinted out to the big lead, the Lady Spartans answered with an 8-0 run to get within 34-27 before Cannon scored at the buzzer for a 36-27 White County lead.
West Hall (16-10) opened the third quarter with a 10-0 run, capped by a McKendree 3-pointer, who had eight points in the spurt, for a 37-36 lead. But McKendree picked up her fourth foul moments later and the Lady Spartans trailing 41-40. With her on the bench, White County used a 10-3 run into the fourth quarter to push the lead back to 51-43 on a Naomi Crumley basket.
McKendree returned and promptly dished off one assist on a Kylie Stasierowski bucket and then added two baskets of her own to trim the lead back to 53-47. But McKendree was called for her fifth foul on the next possession. She fouled out with 26 points at the time and the Lady Spartans never got closer than four the rest of the way.
Crumley finished with 22 points, including six 3-pointers, to lead White County. Cannon finished with 12 points for the Lady Warriors.
Both defenses were aggressive as West Hall finished with 29 turnovers and White County had 24. But that also produced scoring chances at the line for both teams. However, neither team could take advantage. White County was just 12-for-27 while West Hall hit just 11-of-28 free throws for the game.
The Lady Warriors now will shoot for their first region title since 1984.
“I expect the gym to be electric,” Davenport said. “I told (the administrators) when I took the job that I came here to win. This was a good victory for the program. Now we’ll try to see if we can get a region title.”
West Hall and Chestatee will play at 3 p.m. Saturday at West Hall in the third-place game.
MARIST BOYS 51,
WHITE COUNTY 42
The game was tied just once at 2-2 and Marist never trailed in knocking off the Warriors in the semifinals.
The War Eagles defense forced 17 White County turnovers and never let the Warriors get their running game going.
Marist (10-14) took the final lead with a 10-2 run to close out the first quarter for a 12-4 advantage. White County (14-11) pulled within 17-14 on a pair of Chandler Harris free throws but the War Eagles took a 24-17 lead into the intermission.
In the third quarter the Warriors fell behind 33-24 early on but a three-point play by Austin Harris capped an 8-2 run to get White County within 35-32. The teams traded baskets to open the fourth quarter and a Chandler Harris basket cut the lead to 40-36.
Marist answered with a 6-0 run holding White County scoreless over a nearly three minute stretch to push its lead to 46-36.
White County coach Sam Borg said it was a frustrating outing all around.
“Marist is very good on defense and we didn’t handle the ball well. You can’t do that at this time of year,” Borg said. “Defensively I thought we played well but offensive we just weren’t good enough to win.”
Austin Harris paced White County with 18 points. Clay Dockery added 14 for the Warriors.
Cody Gaynes led Marist with 13 points. John Treanor had 9 points for the War Eagles.
MARIST GIRLS 43,
CHESTATEE 34
Marist never trailed, though Chestatee tied the game at 33 with 2:45 left in the game after a 12-2 run. But Marist was able to pull away forcing two straight Chestatee turnovers and going 10-of-10 from the foul line in the final 1:43 to seal the game.
Marist (20-2) early showed it balance as five different players scored on their first six field goals as they ran out to a 14-4 lead after the first quarter. Marist took a 23-12 lead into the halftime.
But Chestatee, behind Lindsey Caudel, chipped away in the second half. The Lady War Eagles (11-16) pulled within 29-21 following a 9-3 run to close out the third quarter.
Marist extended the lead to 31-21 on basket in opening moments of the fourth quarter but Caudell caught fire scoring seven straight points. Beth capped the run to tie game with a 3-pointer.
But Marist yielded just one Chestatee free throw the rest of the way while sealing the game at the foul line.
Caudell finished with a game-high 26 points to lead Chestatee.
Diarra Oden led Marist with 9 points and Riley Donahue and Annabelle Ewing had 8 points each.
Chestatee and West Hall will play at 3 p.m. Saturday at West Hall in the third-place game.
BLESSED TRINITY BOYS 72,
WEST HALL 45
No. 1 seed Blessed Trinity opened the game with an 11-1 run and then used a 10-1 run in the second quarter to blow the game open in advancing to the region finals.
A Jeremiah Prather 3-pointer and then a Noah Edmondson three-point play pulled the Spartans (10-15) within 15-7 late in the first quarter. The Titans put the game away going on a 16-6 second quarter run for a 39-14 halftime lead.
The Spartans doubled their first half output in the third quarter with 14 points but the Titans still managed to extend their lead to 57-28 heading into the fourth quarter.
Blessed Trinity (18-6) led by as many as 30 points three separate times in the final period.
Prather finished with 14 points to lead West Hall. Edmondson added 9 points and Braden Martin had 8 for the Spartans.
CJ Abrams and Ben Shappard each poured in 16 points to lead Blessed Trinity.
THURSDAY'S REGION 7-AAAA TOURNAMENT SCORES
at West Hall
White County girls 58, West Hall 51
Marist boys 51, White County 42
Marist girls 43, Chestatee 34
Blessed Trinity boys 72, West Hall 45
SATURDAY'S REGION 7-AAAA SCHEDULE
at West Hall
Consolation girls: West Hall vs. Chestatee, 3 p.m.
Consolation boys: White County vs. West Hall, 4:30 p.m.
Championship girls: White County vs. Marist, 6 p.m.
Championship boys: Marist vs. Blessed Trinity, 7:30 p.m.
