Osborne girls make playoffs for second year in a row

For a sports program to thrive, success must be expected, says Lisa Williams.

Osborne’s athletics director is setting a good example with her girls basketball team, which has made the state playoffs in consecutive seasons for the first time in school history.

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Brant Sanderlin/bsanderlin@ajc.com

Osborne High School’s Shacamra Jackson (right) blocks the shot by Sprayberry’s Nadia Ogene. Osborne defeated Sprayberry 48-24 in the quarterfinals of the Region 7-AAAA tournament.

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What’s more remarkable was the easy nature of Tuesday night’s victory at home that clinched the historic berth.

Against a team it beat by only two points one week ago, Osborne sprinted to a 16-1 lead and defeated Sprayberry 48-24 in the quarterfinals of the Region 7-AAAA tournament.

Junior center Shacamra Jackson scored 23 points in three quarters. Falona Brown scored 13 and made a 3-pointer at the third-quarter buzzer for a 31-point lead.

“We failed ourselves the last game,” Williams said. “That was a motivating factor. We made a commitment that defense would be what won this ball game.”

Sprayberry (16-11), which had made the Class AAAAA state tournament the past two seasons, committed more than 25 turnovers and didn’t make a field goal until Telise Green’s put-back with 5:00 left in the first half.

Osborne (21-2) lost three starters from last year’s team that reached the Class AAAA round of 16, the school’s best finish in 10 years.

Williams came to Osborne in 2005 after leading Ridgeway High of Memphis to a Tennessee state final four.

She also became athletics director at a school that had experienced the least success in sports of any Cobb County school the previous decade.

“We’re trying to set the expectation that good things should happen like this all the time,” Williams said. “It’s one of the things we talk about when we meet with all the coaches. We’re changing the mind-set of not only the students but the community. Winners are here, too.”

Osborne will play Rome on Thursday in the semifinals.