Thursday March 28th, 2024 1:38PM

Lanierland girls: North Hall, House capture elusive title

By Jeff Hart Sports Reporter

FLOWERY BRANCH — It’s been a long time coming for Kristi House.

But the North Hall girls coach, now in her 10th season, wasn’t so much worried about claiming that elusive Lanierland crown for herself than continuing to keep the Lady Trojans in the conversation state-wide.

“It’s not about me. It’s about the program and the community,” she said Monday night after watching her group hold off a tenacious Lakeview Academy squad in a 66-58 victory in the finals of the 60th annual tournament.

It was the first title for North Hall since 2009 and the first for House as a coach of her alma mater. Lakeview Academy was playing in its first-ever Lanierland final.

“It feels tremendous for me and for the community. The seniors really deserved this with all the hard work they’ve put in. They really put their stamp on their time here (with this),” House said. "What I'm really hoping is that this will be the catalyst for a big season moving forward."

Grace Hollifield, who garnered the MVP award, helped shoot North Hall to a big first-half lead with four 3-pointers, and a pair of fourth-quarter treys helped hold off a furious Lakeview comeback.

The first half opened with Hollifield and Lakeview’s Eliza Snyder trading 3-pointers. It ended with Lakeview’s Joelle Snyder converting a three-point play with just 0.6 seconds left to cut a big North Hall lead to 37-20 at the half.

In between, the Trojans dominated the opening 16 minutes using a 20-8 second quarter to take command. They drained 5-of-7 treys in the first half while the Lions missed 10 consecutive 3-pointers to build a 37-17 lead on a Hollifield trey, her fourth of the half, with 32 seconds left.

North Hall also dominated the boards pulling down 21 rebounds, 7 offensive, to just 6 for Lakeview in the first half.

“We talked before the game about coming out and trying to get up on them early,” Hollifield said. “We feed off each other and I thought we did that. 

After falling in a tough final in 2018 to Flowery Branch, Hollifield said they had a sense of urgency coming into the 2019 tournament of trying to get House her first tournament trophy.

“We wanted this pretty bad, especially after last year,” she said. “We also wanted this for Coach House. This tournament is a big deal for her so it feels good to be able to do it.”

The second half, however, saw Lakeview finally find its offensive stroke. Back-to-back 3-pointers by Elise Roark in an 8-0 run pulled the Lions within 39-28, and a Maddy Towles’ trey got them within 42-33 late in the third quarter.

North Hall answered that with an 8-2 run, capped by a Rylee McCall 3-pointer, but Jackie Allen drained a 3-pointer for Lakeview to make it 50-38 heading into the fourth quarter.

Hollifield’s sixth 3-pointer made it 57-45 North Hall with just over five minutes left and the Trojans looked in control. But the Lions staged one final rally.

Three-pointers by Eliza Snyder, Towles, and Allen and a Towles basket off a feed from Allen pulled Lakeview within 64-58 with 2:11 left. But the North Hall defense clamped down from there and the offense was able to dribble out most of the remaining time as the Lions played for the turnover instead of fouling.

“I thought our defense was the real key,” House said. “That and the fact that we really shot the ball well. We have girls that can hit the big shot and they did that tonight. Just so proud of them.”

Lauren Swanson added 14 points for North Hall and Maci Gillespie had 12 for the Trojans.

Eliza Snyder paced Lakeview with 20 points, including four 3-pointers. Towles had 10 points and Roark finished with a season-high 10 points as well. Allen had 9 but the North Hall defense held Joelle Snyder to just 3 points.

 

FLOWERY BRANCH 58,
CHEROKEE BLUFF 39

The Falcons rallied from an early deficit to knock off the Bears in the third-place game. Cherokee Bluff led 8-5 early on but Flowery Branch used a 13-5 first-half run to grab the lead.

The Falcons put the game out of reach with a 15-6 third-quarter spurt. They led by as many as 24 points in the fourth quarter.

Ashlee Locke led Flowery Branch with 15 points. Bella Brick added 14 points, Shaina Kreiws 11, and Morgan Aguilar had 10 points for the Falcons.
Timber Gaither had 16 points to pace Cherokee Bluff. Maddy Phillips scored 13 points for the Bears.

 

GAINESVILLE 44,
CHESTATEE 36

Lauren Teasley led seven Gainesville scorers with 15 points. Zaria Williams had 9 points and Sadie Roach 8 for the Lady Red Elephants in the fifth-place game.
Chestatee had two players foul out during the game and no War Eagles scored more than 9 points.
Both teams will get back in action this weekend in region play.

 

EAST HALL 52,
WEST HALL 42

East Hall avoided the play-in game in 2020 with a win over the Spartans in the seventh-place game. With the loss, West Hall fell into the play-in game for a second straight season

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