Wesleyan’s hiatus from the throne of girls basketball in Georgia was a short one.
The Wolves, who lost in the final to Kendrick last season, avenged three earlier losses to Holy Innocents’ with a 45-31 victory over the Golden Bears in the Class AA championship game Friday at the Macon Coliseum.
The victory gave Wesleyan (25-7) its 11th state championship in 14 years, tying the state record for girls basketball titles set by Taylor County, which won its 11th on Thursday in the Class A public-school final. Wesleyan was playing in its 12th consecutive state final, going 10-2 in those games.
“It feels great, especially with the way the region championship game ended [a controversial 43-41 loss to Holy Innocents’], especially after losing last year, lots of injuries this season,” Wesleyan coach Jan Azar said. “So there’s lots of things that play into how excited I am about this one. I can honestly say that I am as excited or more excited about this state championship than any of the ones that have gone before.”
It was the second consecutive season in which Holy Innocents’ (31-1) had its bid for an undefeated season end with a loss in the championship game. Last season, the Golden Bears lost to Southwest Atlanta Christian 57-52 in the Class A private-school final.
Wesleyan went almost six minutes without a field goal midway through the second half but outscored Holy Innocents’ 19-8 in the fourth quarter to pull away.
“We don’t play well in the third quarter, we haven’t all year, so I told them at the end of the third quarter, ‘It’s over and we’re still up by three. Now let’s go play,’” Azar said. “We had some things that weren’t going our way in the third quarter, but we never stopped playing and never gave up.”
A Holy Innocents’ team that had not scored fewer than 43 points in a game this season or 68 points in the playoffs, could not take advantage of Wesleyan’s second-half drought because of one of its own. The Golden Bears didn’t score in the third quarter until Kaila Hubbard’s basket a little less than six minutes into the period cut the lead to 26-19.
But the Golden Bears had shooting problems throughout the game. They made just 12 of 50 field goal attempts (24 percent) for the game, were 1-for-17 on 3-pointers (5.9 percent) and went 6-for-15 from the free-throw line (40 percent).
Wesleyan didn’t shoot much better from the field (14-for-52, 26.9 percent), but they were 10-for-14 on free throws in the second half and made four 3-pointers, including a key one from Nikki McDonald with 3:52 to play that gave the Wolves their first double-digit lead at 36-25.
Neither team led by more than three points in the first half until a 3-pointer by Natalie Armstrong put Wesleyan ahead 22-17 in the final minute of the second half. Armstrong was key for Wesleyan in the first half, scoring 13 of her-game high 17 points. No other player on either team finished with more than nine points.
“I think there were less nerves from the players and coaches that we were just going to go out and play our game,” Azar said. “We had nothing to lose. Everybody can say that we were the underdog, and we were to an extent, but they say that Wesleyan is here every single year. So we tried to let our kids know to just go out and play, relax and have a good time. But in the back in their mind, everybody knows that Wesleyan’s got a shot.”
Wesleyan (45): Frerking 9, Booker 3, Register 7, McDonald 6, Armstrong 17, Summers, Kavel 3, Thompkins, Edwards.
Holy Innocents' (31): Pointer 4, Cassell 6, Hubbard 8, Long 3, Blanding 6, Suttle 2, Morton, Milord.
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