FORT VALLEY – Olivia Cochran scored 29 points and pulled 16 rebounds to lead the Carver Lady Tigers (31-0) past Flowery Branch, 74-70, in the Class 4A semifinals Saturday at Fort Valley State University.
“She’s not top-five post (players) in the nation for no reason,” Branch coach Courtney Newton-Gonzalez said about Cochran. “I thought she was very focused tonight. Our game plan was to make her work and we made her. We just had a hard time boxing her out no matter what the defense was”
Seniors Caroline Wysocki led the Lady Falcons (27-4) with 21 points and Ashley Woodroffe scored 20 in the loss.
“I thought both were determined.,” Newton-Gonzalez said. “They’ve carried us all year long. I’m just proud of our seniors and what they’ve accomplished over the four years.
Senior guard Ashley Scott poured in 12 points, all from behind the 3-point arc.
“Ashley shot the ball extremely well,” Newton-Gonzalez said. “She hit big shots, wouldn’t have been in without her. “
The Lady Falcons senior class will go down as one of the best in school history. Wysocki, Scott, Woodroffe and Megan Lusco compiled a career record of 106-20, won four straight Lanierland titles, two region titles, Class 5A runner-up, two semifinal appearances and one state quarterfinal.
Needless to say, this class has set the standard at Flowery Branch.
As for Saturday night, the game can be summed up as a game of runs.
The first quarter saw six lead changes and five ties, with Flowery Branch opening the game on a 7-0 run to take a 7-2 lead off Ashlee Locke, Wysocki and Scott buckets. Carver led at the end of one, 18-16.
In the second quarter, Carver settled in on a 10-4 run, pushing the lead up eight points 28-20, then Flowery Branch mounted a 9-1 run to tie the game at 29. Cochran and Jailyn Shaw finished the quarter on a 5-0 run to give the lead at the half 34-29.
The second half was much of the same with Carver opening on a 10-2 run. Janya Love-Hill’s bucket with 4:42 to go in the third gave the Lady Tigers their largest lead of the game, 44-32.
Later in the quarter, Woodroffe, Wysocki and Scott paced the Lady Falcons on a 7-0 run, cutting into the lead 47-42 with 1:50 to go.
Abi Whitaker cut the lead to 48-44 with 1:06, outscoring the Lady Tigers 9-1, but Carver would end the quarter with the last two baskets to take a 53-44 advantage.
Woodroffe cut into the lead in the fourth off back-to-back baskets, but Carver, led by Cochran, pushed it up to a 12-point lead over the next two minutes, 68-56. The Lady Falcons finished the game on a 4-0.
“They had some runs that was hard for us to battle back from,” Newton-Gonzalez said. “Being down 12 and cutting it to four was huge, but environments like this and games like this, when you get down even if you have a run, it’s tough to come back from that. I’m really proud of our kids of how the drought and played. Some things just didn’t go our way tonight.”
