After 31 years as Douglas County's basketball coach, Chet Forsh finally will take his girls to the state semifinals.
Kristina Wells scored 26 points in a 61-50 win over Miller Grove in Friday's Class AAAA quarterfinals at West Georgia.
"I think I've had teams that could've made the Final Four before, but it doesn't take a lot to stumble in the playoffs," said Forsh, 59. "All it takes is one bad game, and one good game from the other team."
Douglas County (30-0) didn't have its best performance Friday, but played well enough to win. The two teams were tied at halftime. Douglas County went a 7-0 run in last three minutes of the third quarter for a 45-34 advantage, but never could put the game away.
"We had too many turnovers," Miller Grove coach Renee Breedlove said. "I played mostly sophomores out there, and I guessed our youth showed. We made a run at the end of the game. But every time we got a turnover, it seemed like we would make a turnover."
Miller Grove (20-10) was one of the state's biggest surprises, knocking off No. 1 Chamblee in the Region 6-AAAA tournament to secure a playoff spot. Tabitha Fudge led the team with 18 points Friday.
Douglas County may be the state's best team that no one really knows about. The Douglasville school was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs in each of the past three seasons.
"We're on the west side and never really gotten respect," Forsh said. "We're [seemingly] not in metro Atlanta, and we're not in Gwinnett County, so some people think we must not be any good … or it seems that way to me."
"So we just have to earn people's respect. I hope at this point we've done a little of that."
Wells, who signed with Kennesaw State, was one of four Douglas County players to score in double figures, along with Christin Mercer with 12, Latara Spriggs with 11, and Monique Wells with 10.
"This season has been pretty exciting," Forsh said. "I thought we had a chance to be good when the year started, but you never know.
"I didn't know if we'd really be undefeated after Christmas. After that happened, I said to myself ‘maybe we're a little better than I thought.'"
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