Credit: Stephen Black - Score Atlanta
Credit: Stephen Black - Score Atlanta
Americus-Sumter scored the game’s first 10 points and was never challenged the rest of the way in a 56-38 victory over Veterans in the Class AAAA girls basketball championship game Thursday at the Macon Coliseum.
The victory completed a 31-1 season for the top-ranked Panthers and marked the first team state title in any sport since the school was formed in 2004 with the merger of Americus and Sumter County high schools. Americus won a Class A girls basketball title in 1966.
“I was actually worried; I didn’t know how we were going to come out playing,” Americus-Sumter coach Sherri Harris said. “The girls had practiced well all week. They’ve been on their toes and I didn’t have to fuss a whole lot, which is unusual. I was hoping they were going to come out and just play, but a lot of times you don’t know what they’re going to do. But we did a great job. Our seniors stepped up, and we just came out and punched them in the mouth.”
The Panthers’ A’Tyanna Gaulden, a Florida State signee, scored a game-high 16 points and had six rebounds, five steals and four assists despite playing just 20 minutes because of foul trouble and the lopsided nature of the game. Americus-Sumter led by as many as 24 points early in the fourth quarter.
Jykiera Long was the only other Panther in double figures with 12.
Third-ranked Veterans (27-5) reached the championship game with a 28-24 victory over Wayne County, and its offensive struggles continued against the Panthers. Veterans shot just 21.4 percent from the field (12-for-56) and was held to nine points or less in every quarter but the fourth, when the game was well out of reach. Kya Cochran led the Warhawks with 11 points.
Veterans was held scoreless until Kee Carrington’s basket on a fast break cut the lead to 10-2 with 4:13 remaining in the first quarter. The Warhawks trailed 16-9 at the end of the quarter, but Gaulden made a layup and a 3-pointer early in the second to increase the lead to 12 points, and Veterans never got closer.
“We did a great job as a team,” Harris said. “Our community has been behind us. Did you see all those people out there? It just feels great.”
Veterans (38): Cochran 11, Carrington 5, Riley, Anna Nicholson 6, Allen 1, Shepherd 2, Audrey Nicholson 3, Janna Aultman 4, Ingraham 4, Jalla Aultman 2, Heard.
Americus-Sumter (56): Gaulden 16, Jykiera Long 12, Swanson 6, Hicks 7, Howard 4, Stevenson 4, Tykiera Long, West, Crawford 2, Blackshear, McCrary, Mays 2, Carson, Johnson 2, Mercer 1.
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