MACON — When they needed her most with history on the line Friday afternoon in the Class 3A finals, Averie Jones delivered.
Down 40-32 to start the fourth quarter, the Lumpkin County sophomore scored eight straight points to help ignite a huge 17-2 run that eventually led Lumpkin County to its first-ever state championship, rallying to beat Greater Atlanta Christian 51-47 at The Macon Centreplex.
It wasn’t a surprise to Lumpkin County coach David Dowse.
“Averie has that star quality and she wants the ball. But it really can come from any of our group,” Dowse said. “We just told all the girls (between quarters) that you have eight minutes to be a champion so go get it.
“I’m proud of all the girls and how they fought back. This group plays for one another...and just has that kind of magic when they play together.”
Junior Kate Jackson got it started with an inside basket and then Jones exploded. Jones converted a three-point play off a Lexi Pierce steal and assist, hit her only 3-pointer of the game moments later, and gave the Lady Indians their first lead of the game, 42-40, two possessions after that on a driving basket. The Lady Indians (30-1) pushed it to 46-40 on Mary Mullinax’s lone field goal of the game and a stick-back basket from Ava Jones.
They never trailed again, although GAC (25-7) stormed back to tie the game at 47 with 47 seconds left, taking advantage of three consecutive Lumpkin County turnovers.
But Jackson reclaimed the lead at 49-47 with 35 seconds remaining on another inside basket, and after a wild sequence in the final 10 seconds, Mullinax sealed the championship with a pair of free throws with 3.9 seconds left.
GAC had one last chance but turned it over on an errant pass as time expired.
Jones, who finished with 17 points, 13 coming in the second half, and 4 assists called it a total team effort by a group of friends.
“We’re all friends and it just feels great to do this with my friends,” Jones said. “I didn’t carry us but I felt the energy of us coming together as a team (at the start of the fourth quarter). We’re just really good at working together and I think that was the key.”
The Lady Indians could not have gotten off to a more sluggish start. They missed their first three shots with two turnovers but managed to trail just 4-2 after a Jackson basket inside just over two minutes in.
The Lady Spartans, however, added to the slow start, answering Jackson’s shot with a 7-0 run, capped by a Trinity Thomas 3-pointer for an 11-2 lead with 3:44 left in the first quarter.
Kaleigh Addie, who paced GAC with 16 points, was a thorn in the Lady Indians’ side swiping 6 steals and converting nearly all of them into points for the Lady Spartans. Jaci Bolden added 13 points and 2 steals and both helped ignite their early run.
“Nerves may have had something to do (with the slow start). But they schemed us well and tried to take away the things that we like to do,” Dowse said.
“We were nervous at first,” said Jackson, who poured in 15 points and pulled down 13 rebounds. “This is what we had been working for our entire season but once we got things going we really took off.”
Lumpkin County finally shook off those nerves when Ava Jones scored on the inside and Jackson later converted a three-point play to pull the Lady Indians within 11-10.
Jackson was the focus early as they went inside to take advantage of a mismatch underneath. She scored 9 of the Lady Indians’ first 12 points.
“We had a height advantage and we knew we were going to take that from the beginning,” Jackson said. “I welcomed that challenge.”
An Averie Jones basket early in the second quarter tied the game for the first time at 14. But GAC again answered with an 8-2 run for a 22-16 lead.
But Pierce, who added 12 points, hit Lumpkin’s only 3-pointer of the half to get them to 22-19 by halftime.
Three times in the third quarter Lumpkin County got within one, the last time at 31-30 on another Pierce 3-pointer. The Lady Spartans then appeared to take control with a 9-2 run to close out the third, capped by a Sydney Lucas 3-pointer at the buzzer, for the 40-32 advantage.
But Lumpkin was just getting started. The dramatic finish to claim the title cemented the Lady Indians into school lore with the school’s first-ever title in any sport in a bracketed state format. (The wrestling team won the Traditional state title in 1981.)
After a gut-wrenching end in the semifinals in 2021, Jackson and Jones both said it was a welcome finish this time around.
“It’s really big and it’s going to mean something for our school for...forever!” Jackson said.
“It feels amazing to get this and to do it with all of my friends is even better,” Jones said.
