TIGER — You wouldn’t have guessed on Monday from their actions that less than 48 hours earlier the Rabun County girls basketball team had forged its way into the school’s record books.
Coach DeeDee Dillard took a personal day to spend with her college-aged children who were on Spring Break. Many of the Lady Wildcats themselves were on a field trip to Atlanta as part of S.A.D.D (Students Against Distracted Decisions). In fact, there had been no basketball related activities of any kind since they had returned from Milledgeville following a 65-37 destruction of Bleckley County in the previous Saturday's Class AA semifinals.
“I just felt like it was a good idea for all of us to step away for a couple of days,” Dillard said. “It was an emotional win for us. We’d been working for a long time for that moment. We wanted to recognize what we had done and appreciate it.”
It is the first time in program history the Lady Wildcats have made it to a championship game. They had never advanced past the quarterfinals until this season -- meaning that the Elite Eight victory and semifinal win continued their journey through uncharted waters.
The Lady Wildcats now will take on perennial powerhouse Laney in the Class AA finals at 2 p.m. Saturday at McCamish Pavilion at Georgia Tech.
The Rabun community has embraced the team and the moment. So much so that Dillard noted a constant stream of accolades while working on game planning for Laney.
“Really, it’s been great, the community support,” Dillard said. “(The community) wants to do some things for the girls so it’s going to be a busy week. Like I said, we want to recognize what we did. But the challenge will be to get ourselves prepared as well.”
With the week-long layoff between games, Dillard worried the extra time could affect the efficiency that marked their playoff run to this point. The Lady Wildcats (29-2) put together two of their best performances of the season in the last two rounds, holding off Fitzgerald 70-54 in the quarterfinals before demolishing Bleckley County in the semifinals.
The task in the finals is something altogether different, however.
Laney, out of Augusta, won the Class AAA state title in 2015 and has advanced to the Final Four or state title game in seven of the past eight seasons. Laney (30-1) has won 29 straight and has not lost to a team from Georgia since losing to 2016 Class AAA state champion Morgan County in last year’s Elite Eight. Laney lost to Wesleyan in the 2013 Class AA championship game and fell in the Final Four in consecutive seasons from 2010-12 and in 2014.
“Laney is a different animal,” Dillard said. “They will be bigger than us at every position, and we will have to get used to the speed of the game in an environment like that -- which can be intimidating if you haven’t experienced it before.”
Rabun County has relied on its defensive quickness the entire season. The Lady Wildcats are averaging 20 steals a game on defense, highlighted by a 34-steal performance against Fitzgerald, which helped offset a poor shooting night. Against Bleckley, the Lady Wildcats shook off a slow start with a dominant second half.
Dillard stressed to her charges that they will not be able to afford slow starts in any phase of the game against Laney.
“I thought against Bleckley we were a little timid on defense. It looked like the girls were playing more to not mess up than being aggressive,” she said. “They came out focused and played much better in the second half. We will have to jump in with both feet (on defense) against Laney. How we handle ourselves early may decide how the game goes.”
Notwithstanding Dillard’s praise of Laney, and concerns, leading up to the finals showdown, she also felt that Rabun County’s patented press could play a key factor for both teams.
Last year’s loss to Greater Atlanta Christian in the Class AA quarterfinals still nags Dillard. She has vowed not to make the same mistake this year.
“We’re comfortable pressing. That’s what we do,” she said. “We decided not to press as much against (GAC) and I think that turned out to hurt us. We said we didn’t want to make that mistake again with the season on the line. This year in the playoffs we are using our press at every opportunity. We’re going to start out doing what we do best. If we have to adjust, we will.”
Laney has two stars that figure to offer the Lady Wildcats more than enough matchup problems. Junior guard De’Sha Benjamin (5-foot-11) and senior guard Aubriana Bonner (5-10) average 35 points, 14 rebounds, and six steals combined. Laney also has won its four playoff games by an average of 30 points, including a 55-point quarterfinal defeat of Heard County -- yet no opponent has seriously threatened to derail Laney's postseason run.
“The Benjamin girl can hit from anywhere on the court. The Bonner girl was impressive on film. She brings a lot of high-energy to the game. We will have to match that,” Dillard said. “Rebounding will be a key. We can’t give them multiple attempts at the basket. The size factor is something we will have to overcome. We will need to force them into taking some bad shots.”
Rabun County, however, has been just as dominant. The Lady Wildcats routed their four playoff opponents by an average of 24.5 ppg.
Rabun County will need solid games from its five front-line players -- senior guard Savanna Scott (13.1 ppg, 4.7 rpg, 3.1 spg, 2.4 apg, North Georgia-commit), sophomore guards Georgia Stockton (12.8 ppg, 4.8 rpg, 4.4 spg, 2.2 apg) and Brooke Henricks (12.1 ppg, 6.9 rpg, 3.5 spg, 2.1 apg), senior forward Tessa Matheson (9.4 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 2.3 spg) and senior guard Hallie Reeves (8 ppg, 4.7 rpg, 4.8 spg, 2.9 apg).
Despite the lopsided and dominant paths for both teams to the championships game, the "experts” see Laney as a prohibitive favorite based on past experience. Dillard knows the only people at McCamish Pavilion giving her squad any chance will hail from "north of the (Tallulah) Gorge." She even invoked the ever-sacred movie Hoosiers, which chronicles an improbable state championship run from a tiny school in Indiana, as incentive that anything is possible.
“We’ve discussed being an underdog, which my girls really haven’t been during the season, and the fact that (the experts) don’t really think we can win this game,” she said. “It’s hard to say how much role experience plays. I just know that if you want to be called champion, you have to go out and earn. If we win it, we will have earned it. If we don’t win it, we’re going to make sure (Laney) earns it.
“Our girls have a lot of confidence. I think hearing things like (they can’t win it) will help us play a little looser. We don’t have anything to lose according to those people. They aren’t old enough like us to remember Hoosiers but we’re going to show them some clips. A small town team wins it all. Hopefully we’ll have a Hoosiers moment.”
