North Paulding girls avenge finals loss to Grayson, win first state championship

When the North Paulding girls basketball team made its first trip to the state finals in 2024, the undefeated, Dani Carnegie-led Grayson team it ran into was a little too much to handle.

Given a second chance against the Rams with a title on the line, North Paulding made the most of it.

The Wolfpack (30-2), ranked No. 1 all season, used a 17-4 run over the final 3:40 of the third quarter to turn a one-point deficit into a 12-point lead and held on for a 64-58 victory in the GHSA Class 6A championship game Saturday at the Macon Coliseum.

It was the first basketball state championship, boys or girls, for the 19-year-old school.

“We’ve been thinking about this as a coaching staff and a group of kids since we lost to Grayson two years ago, trying to get back here and fight and get everything that we could,” North Paulding coach Wes Willis said. “We tried to change our schedule, play better competition and stuff like that. And to get to this moment, it is just so sweet.

“We thought we had a chance last year and we got upset [by Carrollton in the second round]. We learned the lesson of how to compose ourselves, and it showed here. If we didn’t have to go through that last year, I don’t know that we win this game.”

Grayson (22-11) was the only unranked team in any classification to reach the championship game, although that’s a bit misleading. The Rams were in the top 10 for a large portion of the season, but dropped out after losing five games in a seven-game stretch during February, including losses to Archer and Grovetown in the Region 4-6A tournament that dropped them to a No. 4 seed for the state playoffs. The Rams were making their third consecutive trip to the finals, having lost to Newton last year.

North Paulding trailed 36-35 after a basket by Grayson’s Mya Glover with 4:09 to play in the third quarter, but seized control with its 17-4 run over the next four minutes. Morgan Landrum had eight points during that stretch, including a 6-for-6 effort from the free-throw line, and Kalee Hinkson capped it off with a 3-pointer from well beyond halfcourt at the buzzer for a 52-40 lead.

Grayson crept back to within four points at 62-58 on a 3-pointer by Glover with 1:18 to play, but Landrum’s two free throws with 25 seconds left put the game away

Landrum was key for North Paulding all night. She finished with 17 points, 21 rebounds, two blocked shots, five steals and four assists. She had plenty of help, as Kalee Hinkson had 19 points, Kenzie Hinkson had 11 and Amiyah Leacock had seven.

“We have a motto of, ‘Sometimes me, sometimes you, but it’s always us,’” Willis said. “That’s been our motto all year, and that’s what we always preach. Some days you may lead us in scoring, and some days it may be somebody else that leads us in scoring or does something else, but it leads us to a victory.”

North Paulding struggled to contain Grayson’s Coco Rudolph, who scored the Rams’ first 14 points as they ran out to a 19-11 lead in the first quarter. She scored five more points at the start of the second half as the Rams’ lead began to dwindle, but North Paulding surged ahead from there. Rudolph, the Region 4-5A co-player of the year and a Kennesaw State signee, finished with 32 points, seven steals, four rebounds and two assists.