TIGER — DeeDee Dillard perceived the butterflies and noted a few anxious faces as she gazed around the locker room prior to Tuesday night's Class AA quarterfinal showdown with Vidalia.
With good reason -- for after sitting on the precipice so many times before, Dillard's Rabun County girls basketball team was back on the verge of history, trying to smash through the imaginary barrier that separated the Lady Wildcats from a state "Final Four" berth.
And no matter how much self-belief mounted through an impressive series of performances to that point -- including a 27-2 record, Region 8-AA championship and two dominant state tournament wins -- Rabun's players could not help but heap a little expectation on themselves.
"I could definitely tell there was a little bit of nerves in the girls," Dillard said. "And that's because they really wanted to make a name for themselves and this program. They wanted to be the group that took the program to the next level. They put pressure on themselves to get us over the hump."
While those nerves might have manifested themselves in a poor early shooting performance -- the Lady Wildcats shot just 6-of-19 in the first quarter -- it did absolutely nothing to derail a stifling Rabun defense or the Lady Wildcats' hopes of history, as they stormed to a 70-54 win over Fitzgerald that clinched the program's first-ever semifinal berth.
"They knew they could do something like this; they had the confidence," Dillard said. "They're a pretty laid back group for the most part, but playing for something like a first-ever semifinal spot is not easy."
And now that they're here?
"I think there will be less pressure; they definitely still want to win really badly -- don't get me wrong," said Dillard, whose team will take on Bleckley County at 6 p.m. Saturday on the campus of Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville for a shot at the state championship game. "But I think there was some immediate pressure of getting past the 'Elite Eight.' Because after the way we had been playing people had begun to talk and expectations were definitely rising."
After storming through a regular season that saw them lose just twice -- once to Class A Private semifinalist Lakeview Academy and once to arch-Region 8-AA rival Banks County -- Rabun's resume certainly carried plenty of weight. Yet the expectation of breaking the glass quarterfinal ceiling had been on the Lady Wildcats' minds since preseason, a remarkable fact in itself as Rabun entered the 2016-17 campaign having graduated four senior starters and a fifth important substitute.
"We felt good coming out of the summer; we had a great summer league performance, and they thought they could do something special even then," Dillard said of her team, which, despite losing so much talent and experience following a 2015-16 season that saw the Lady Wildcats reach the Class AA quarterfinals, still returned four key seniors.
Guard and three-year leading scorer Savanna Scott was joined by post Tessa Matheson and fellow guards Hallie Reeves and Summer Fountain as Rabun's backbone, while talented young players like sophomores Brooke Henricks and Georgia Stockton were counted on for significant minutes and moments.
It has proven a potent mix for Rabun.
"We've got four players averaging in double figures points per game and two-three others scoring around eight points per game," Dillard said. "We're really much more balanced this season. And it seems like every night someone else steps up for us. And we've got four seniors that really provide some great leadership."
Scott has maintained her position as the team's leading scorer, but her numbers are actually a little down from past seasons -- meanwhile, her assist numbers are higher than ever.
"She knows she's got other players around her who can take over, and she's getting the ball to them in dangerous positions," Dillard said of Scott.
Perhaps most impressive has been the Lady Wildcats' play on the opposite end of the floor, where a swarming defensive effort has become the expectation night-in, night-out.
"We emphasize defense because we have 100 percent control over how we play that part of the game," Dillard said. "It's a mental mindset for this team."
It was a mindset on full display in the quarterfinals, as the Lady Wildcats forced 34 turnovers in the win over Fitzgerald.
It is a mindset that Dillard knows will also be pushed to the limit in Saturday's semifinal contest against a Bleckley team that has stormed its own way to the Final Four despite entering the postseason as a relative underdog.
"They've surprised a lot of people and are finding ways to win -- that's almost more scary than to play someone that's a big favorite," Dillard said. "They're quick, well-coached and they have a 6-foot-2 post that can dominate."
Jahnaria Brown has controlled the paint for the Lady Royals (20-11), possessing the frame and athleticism to trouble any defense.
"She's rangy and agile, so, while they do like to pound it inside as their first option, Brown is still a threat on misses because she can go get the ball," Dillard said. "They also have a couple of guards that can shoot well from the perimeter."
Certainly the Lady Wildcats have perimeter threats of their own, however, and Dillard expects to maintain the gameplan that has proven so successful this season.
"The whole postseason we've focused on playing our game, and we want to get after them defensively with our press and knock down outside shots to loosen things up inside," Dillard said. "The one loss we had to Banks County (49-45 on Jan. 27 in the regular season) we got away from our game and let Banks control the tempo, so we've focused on playing our tempo since then."
And now they hope that tempo and focus will lead the Lady Wildcats to the precipice of the ultimate prize.
"We've always been known as a solid, consistent program, but now we're showing maybe we've got what it takes to win it all. We know there's still a long way to go yet, but this group has really done something special," Dillard said. "I'm really proud of them."
