The Maynard Jackson girls didn’t play a perfect first quarter on Tuesday night, but it was close enough. And it was more than enough to send the Jaguars to the Final Four for the second straight year.
No. 2-ranked Jackson hammered No. 1 Union Grove 80-55 in the third round of the Class 5A playoffs and advances to the semifinals to play unranked Cartersville, a 47-46 winner over No. 9 Harris County. It was the 18th straight win for Jackson.
Jackson (27-1) showed it meant business from the start. The Jaguars raced to a 10-2 and scored the final 21 points of the quarter for a 31-8 advantage. Jackson upped the lead to 50-20 at halftime and never allowed Union Grove to get closer than 17 points.
“We try to jump on a lot of people in the first quarter,” Jackson coach Maurice Miles said. “We don’t necessarily have to press you to pressure you into shots. It’s hard for people to make enough shots to stay in the game, so they start pressuring themselves to do what they may or may not want to do.”
Jackson and Union Grove both earn a lot of points off turnovers, but Jackson’s quickness and physicality was too much for the Wolverines. At times it appeared the Jags had six players on the court.
“The majority of their high percentage points come off a press, but when you take the layups out of the way, now they have to shoot a really, really high percent,” Miles said. “It’s easier for us to set our defense once we know all you really want to do is shoot free throws. I thought that was the difference in tonight’s game.”
Jackson was led by Taliah Cornish with 23 points, Shakira Gresham with 19 points and 14 rebounds, Cayden Cornish with 18 points and Kennedie Cooper with 14 points.
Union Grove (28-1) had its 17-game winning streak broken. The Wolverines were led by Region 2 Player of the Year Jordan Brooks with 29 points, including five 3-pointers. Nadea Smith scored 10.
Miles said there was no real motivation about playing the No. 1-ranked team in the classification. Jackson had been ranked No. 1 until mid-December and dropped a notch after losing to Class 7A North Paulding, a team that Tuesday beat mighty Buford to reach the Final Four in the state’s highest classification.
“We played (Union Grove) last year to get to the Final Four, so I felt like the motivation was more theirs,” Miles said. “Tonight they were confident. I don’t even think for the most part – I know I didn’t – that they were the No. 1 team.”
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