It took Fayette County and coach John Strickland three trips to the championship game to win the “big cup” they’ve talked about all week, but they finally got it done.
The Tigers withstood a frantic second-half rally to defeat Forest Park 55-45 in the Class AAAA girls basketball championship Friday afternoon at Gwinnett Arena. It is the first basketball state title for Fayette County, which lost to Southwest DeKalb in the 2008 and 2009 finals.
The second-ranked Tigers (28-5) closed the season with 19 consecutive victories, and only once during the streak was the margin of victory closer than 10 points.
The Tigers appeared headed for another lopsided victory Friday, leading 36-17 with 5:23 to play in the third quarter. But Forest Park turned up the full-court defensive pressure and began to fight back.
The Panthers cut the lead to 11 points by the end of the quarter and outscored Fayette County 17-9 over the next six minutes to get within 47-44 on two free throws by freshman Kayla Potts with 2:44 to play. Forest Park forced Fayette County into 21 second-half turnovers and 26 for the game.
But the Panthers got no closer. Fayette County’s Brianna Banks made a layup to increase the lead to five points, and the Tigers went 6-for-10 from the free-throw line in the final 1:28 to put the game away.
“I said at halftime that they were going to come back with a fight,” Strickland said. “That’s what great teams do. And when they did, I think we answered it. They cut it to three, and we answered and fought back. We pushed through and got it done.”
Fayette County’s Elem Ibiam was dominant inside, much as she was in the Tigers’ 52-39 victory against Chattahoochee in the semifinals. The South Carolina signee finished with 11 points, 16 rebounds and eight blocked shots.
“Coach told us at practice that we were going to have to control the boards,” Ibiam said. “That was all I was thinking about, controlling the boards and trying to keep them from getting easy layups and easy putbacks.”
Forest Park didn’t have an answer inside for Ibiam, especially after Keyonna Allen left the game in the first half with an injury. Nicole Wilson tried to take up the slack, however, finishing with nine points and 18 rebounds. Ashlee Cole led Forest Park (26-6) with 13 points, and Raven Wynn had 12.
“I’m extremely proud,” Forest Park coach Steven Cole said. “I’ve been in the Forest Park area for like 15 years, so some of these girls I’ve known from the recreation area since they were 7 or 8 years old. It’s like I’ve got five daughters that are going to be graduating.”
Brianna Banks led Fayette County with 14 points, and Keyondra Jenkins scored 10.
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