Lanier Christian girls basketball coach Mike Robertson has built the Lady Lightning into a perennial GAPPS state title contender.
And for the last three seasons, the Lady Lightning have played for the state championship.
Region 2-3A foe Westminster Christian, however, has been a roadblock in the Lady Lightning’s dream of hoisting the elusive state title trophy.
Last season, WCA, with Davidson commit Sally Schultz, handed LCA a third straight loss in the state title game. It wasn’t a blowout as LCA was in the game early in the third quarter, down 25-21, but only scored 11 points the rest of the way to fall to WCA, 47-32. Schultz ended the night with 22 points.
Schultz is gone this year, but WCA is still pretty good, sitting at 5-2 overall.
“They got us three times last year,” Robertson said. “It’ll be a great gauge for us as we go into this game.”
LCA (7-0, 3-0 Region 2-3A GAPPS) will look to stay undefeated as they travel to Westminster on Friday. Game time is set for 6 p.m.
It’ll be WCA’s first region game this season, and the Lady Lions are one of the top-scoring teams in the region, averaging 50 points per game and giving up 28 ppg.
LCA, however, isn’t too far behind the Lady Lions, offensively, averaging 48 points, but the defense has been better. The Lady Lightning are giving up just 22 ppg.
Robertson attributes the early season success to his senior class. He starts five seniors, four of which were starters last season, including transfer and leading scorer and rebounder Shyla Sheffield (12.7 ppg, 7.7 rpg).
Also in the starting rotation is guard Lexie Robertson, who is second on the team in scoring with 8.7 ppg. Ashley Avery, 6-foot post player, averages 8.6 ppg and 7.0 rpg), and guard Reece Montgomery is scoring 4.4 ppg, while Hollie Beussee, a guard, averages 2.6 ppg and 2.9 assists per game.
“I’ve got a group of seniors that have come back that have experience and know what to do,” Robertson said. “I can come in the first 45 minutes of practice and not even have to be there. They can run it by themselves basically.”
But the first matchup with defending region and state champions, WCA, will be more than just a test for the Lady Lightning, it’ll be a gauge on how far they’ve come since last season.
“I don’t want to put everything into one game,” he said. But this obviously will tell us where we are at. They are well-coached and have kids coming back. They’re defending state champs. So this will give us a good gauge of where we are at this season. There will be things that come out of this game that we need to work on. We will take things from it and work on ourselves to get a better picture of where we are and who we are after this game Friday night."
