The matchup between No. 3-ranked Wesleyan and unranked Heard County didn't have the feel of a state quarterfinals game, but it was.
The Lady Wolves used a full-court press the Lady Braves never found an answer for
Credit: Stan Awtrey
Credit: Stan Awtrey
and won 79-22 on Thursday at Georgia College to advance to the Class AA semifinals.
The Lady Wolves (26-4), a No. 2 seed from Region 6, will play the winner of Thursday's game between No. 7 GAC (Region 6, No. 3) and No. 5 Rabun County, the top seed from Region 8. All AA quarterfinals and semifinals games will be played at Georgia College, with the semifinals games to be played Saturday.
The Lady Braves - Region 5's top seed - end their season at 23-6.
Mikayla Coombs - who led Wesleyan with 10 steals, 22 points, seven rebounds and three 3-pointers - said their trek to Milledgeville is about revenge.
"We’re just trying hard to overcome a poor showing in the region championship," Coombs said. "So we’re just trying to put it all on the court so we can get back to state - hopefully against Holy Innocents’."
Holy Innocents' - the state's top-ranked team - recently beat Wesleyan twice in the span of a week, including in the Region 6 championship game. If the two teams are to meet in the state championship it will be a rematch of last year's final, which Wesleyan won.
The Lady Wolves' relentless full-court press forced 25 Lady Braves first-half turnovers to put the game away early. They led 36-9 at half time and stretched the lead to as much as 60 in the second half.
Still, Wesleyan only led 12-6 after the first quarter and that was Lady Wolves coach Jan Azar's only complaint.
"I think they played focused today, we just can’t have a down quarter like that," Azar said. "We’ve got to play four quarters and I don’t feel like we came out ready to play in that first quarter, so we’ve got to address that.
Cairo Booker was Wesleyan's only other double-digit scorer with 16 points. She also had eight steals.
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