Shortly after the first of the year, the West Hall girls morphed from a good team to a very good team. The Spartans went from region contender to region champion. Now you start to wonder if coach Bryan Richerson’s team is ready to take the next step and become a state contender.
West Hall (20-8) is one of the hottest teams still playing in the Class AAA tournament. The Spartans have won 11 straight games and will host Washington County on Friday in the second round of the playoffs.
“It’s been a nice journey so far,” Richerson said.
West Hall began the season by finishing third in the Emerald Coast Thanksgiving Classic in Florida, although Richerson said, “We probably should have won it.” They hit a three-game slide in December and lost two of three in January, falling to Region 7-AAA rivals East Hall and Dawson County.
That’s when the fun began.
“Our girls really believed and their confidence started to grow,” Richerson said.
The Spartans won a game at Franklin County and followed that with wins over East Hall and Dawson, the two most highly regarded teams in the league. They beat East Hall and Dawson County again in the region tournament and won their first region title since 2005, Richerson said.
West Hall has done it with a relatively young team. Only one senior is in the starting lineup and the best player is a sophomore.
“But they’ve played together the last couple of years in the off season,” Richerson said. “Chemistry is so important and this is a very close team. They don’t care who scores or who plays. The most important thing to them is that the team wins.”
The team’s best player is 5-foot-8 guard Anna McKendree, who averages 22 points. McKendree is a big-time scorer with lots of range. Richerson labeled her as “fearless” and said, “She’s not scared to take on anybody.”
Junior Macy Passmore, a 5-9 guard, averages 14 points and is working her way toward becoming a D-I prospect. Passmore is a good shooter with rebounding skills who plays hard all the time.
The other starters are: senior Meaghan Kelling, a 5-10 forward, who does a lot of the hard work on the inside; Megan English, a 5-10 junior, who has the tenacity that enables her to accomplish the difficult tasks; and Avery Prather, a 5-1 junior, who Richerson called “an energy ball” who is an quick and aggressive defender.
Helping off the bench are guard Izzy Salgado, a sophomore and scrappy defender, and Danielle Hinkelman, a 5-8 junior who is long, lanky and athletic.
As a result, West Hall is going back to the state playoffs for the first time in 10 years and entered the state rankings at No. 9. The Spartans beat Adairsville 73-48 in the first round of the playoffs on Tuesday.
“This is the best team I’ve ever coached,” Richerson said. “Not because we’re winning, but because they’re so much fun to be around. It’s a great bunch of girls.”
Other second-round girls games include:
Johnson Savannah at Haralson County
Ringgold at Peach County
Westminster at Morgan County
Dawson County at Laney
Pepperell at Beach
Kendrick at Sonoraville
Hart County at Maynard Jackson
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