Class 6A Girls: Harrison 79, South Paulding 39
The Harrison girls basketball team took an impressive first step on what it hopes will be the road to a return trip to the state championship game.
The third-ranked Hoyas (23-4) swarmed visiting South Paulding in a 29-5 first quarter and cruised to a 79-39 victory Friday in the first round of the Class AAAAAA tournament.
The victory puts Region 6 champion Harrison, which lost to Mays 52-51 in last year’s state final, in the second round against Lanier at home on Wednesday in a battle of top-five teams. The fifth-ranked Longhorns advanced with a 58-54 victory over Alpharetta.
Sarah Woghiren scored the Hoyas’ first seven points, had 12 in the first quarter and finished with a game-high 19. Audrey Jordan added 16 points. The two seniors, who were all-region selections in 6-AAAAAA, had 26 of their combined 35 points in the first half.
“I’ve got a strong senior class,” Hoyas coach Steve Lenahan said. “I had a strong one last year, and a lot of these kids have been playing together for a long time. I’ve been fortunate enough to have them come up through the ranks and stick together. They do so many things. It’s not just points, it’s rebounds, it’s basketball IQ, it’s everything.”
Harper Vick, who finished with seven points, made two free throws with 5:14 remaining in the second quarter to make it 40-9, giving Harrison its first lead of at least 30 points, and it was a 50-14 game at halftime.
Woghiren’s layup with 6:48 to play in the third quarter gave Harrison its first 40-point lead, at 56-15, and South Paulding was not able to get closer until opening the fourth quarter with a 10-0 run against Harrison’s reserves that cut the deficit to 67-37. The Hoyas answered by scoring 12 of the game’s final 14 points to restore the 40-point margin.
In all, 12 players scored for Harrison, and 10 of them had at least four points.
“We normally have about nine scoring, depending on how tight the game is,” Lenahan said. “This one we had a little bit more of a cushion, so I was able to get more people in.”
South Paulding’s Kayla Frey, a first-team all-region selection in 5-AAAAAA, picked up her fourth foul with 3:45 remaining in the second quarter, but by then the Hoyas already had a 30-point lead. She managed to avoid fouling out until 1:06 to play in the game and finished with a team-best 16 points. Frey, Caylin Stamps (11 points) and Bre’l Mackey (10) accounted for all but two of South Paulding’s points.
South Paulding (19-11) eliminated defending state champion Mays 53-48 in the 5-AAAAAA tournament and went on to earn the region’s No. 4 seed.
