Top-ranked North Paulding returns to state title game after crushing Campbell

The North Paulding Lady Wolfpack will get another chance at a ring.

Two seasons after losing a heartbreaking state championship game and a year after being upset in the second round, North Paulding earned a spot in the title game once again after dispatching Campbell 69-54 on Saturday in the Class 6A girls semifinals at Georgia State University.

The No. 1-ranked Lady Wolfpack will seek their first state title when they play Grayson next Saturday in Macon in the state championship game. Grayson knocked off Hillgrove 68-56 in the first semifinal game earlier at GSU.

Campbell’s season ends at 25-6.

North Paulding (30-2), champions of Region 5, broke open an eight-point game with a 12-0 surge in the second quarter to push the lead to 37-17 at the break. While Campbell sliced the deficit to 10 in the fourth quarter, North Paulding never lost control of the game.

Lady Wolfpack sophomore guard Kenzie Hinkson said her team has used last season’s disappointing finish — being upset in the region title game and again in the second round of the state tournament — to motivate them throughout this year’s postseason.

“That definitely flipped a switch in our minds for this season. We wanted to come back for this championship… we’ve made it here, and now we just have to finish,” Hinkson said. “Tonight, we just wanted to stay together and keep working hard. We’ve been playing together for a while now, so we’ve had that on-court chemistry for a long time.”

North Paulding head coach Wes Willis credited his team’s win on Saturday to their defense and attacking style on offense.

“We’ve still got to be better, but overall, I’m pretty happy… a chance to play in state championship game is always a blessing, and we appreciate this opportunity,” Willis said. “Ball movement was a big thing for us tonight… we moved it around quickly, found our shooters, we had open looks, and took advantage of them. And then our defense played well, too… We tried to pack it in on (Campbell) and tried to force them into outside shots.

“And it’s always big when you’ve got girls that have been through it all… we’ve had some heartbreaks the last couple of years, especially our juniors and seniors,“ Willis added. ”They were on the state runner-up team and then on last year’s team that got upset at Carrollton. Coming into a game like this, we relied on that leadership when it got a little tight, and they brought it home for us.”

North Paulding used a 10-2 run late in the first quarter to build a double-digit advantage, and the Lady Wolfpack led 25-13 heading into the second. But after Campbell hit two quick buckets in the quarter, North Paulding reeled off 12 straight points to take a 37-17 lead into intermission.

The Lady Wolfpack pushed the lead to as many as 23, when Kenzie Hinkson knocked down back-to-back 3-pointers to make it 51-28, but Campbell still had one last surge left. The Lady Spartans ripped off a 9-0 run to close the third quarter, and when North Paulding stretched it out to a 20-point lead again in the fourth, Campbell scored 10 straight points to slice the lead in half, 62-52, with 1:55 remaining.