MACON -- Attention women’s college basketball coaches. Sierra McNure has a message for you: Have shot, will travel.
The 5-foot-6 Washington County senior guard went berserk Saturday night at the Macon Centreplex, going 6-for-8 behind the 3-point arc and finishing with a game-high 19 points to propel the Golden Hawks to a 62-50 victory over previously unbeaten Dalton (33-1).
They wrapped up a perfect season (32-0) and won the Class AAA state title.
“I want to play in college,” McNure said, while clutching the championship trophy. “Maybe after tonight, I’ll get a few offers.”
“She may not be the one to break down the defense,” said Golden Hawks coach Sug Parker. “But that’s my two guard, and there’s one thing I know for sure about her. She is my shooter. She can knock down that [perimeter] shot with the best of them.”
While most of the attention this season has been focused on Washington County sophomore guard Allisha Gray, who led the state in scoring at nearly 30 points per game, Parker said this season’s success and the title game victory were a total team effort.
“It’s good when you have a player that can go out and score 25, 30, 40 points, and Allisha can do that. But every player gets tired,” Parker said. “We play with a team concept. If you shut one [player] down, the others step up.”
Indeed, the Golden Hawks got big efforts from senior Fathia Bess (12 points, six rebounds), junior point guard Sheirkerriea Nelson (10 points, two steals, one turnover) and Gray, who battled through the Catamounts’ tough box-and-one defense to finish with 15 points, five rebounds and three steals.
Gray managed only three points in the first half, while being harassed effectively by Dalton juniors Chandler McKinney and Annie Kate Snyder, who alternated guarding her. But Gray jump-started her team in the third quarter when she set up on the low block instead of cruising the perimeter.
“I knew I could post the players up that they had guarding me,” Gray said. “I just let the game come to me and let my teammates do the rest.”
The game turned when a 15-5 run by the Golden Hawks to start the third quarter transformed a 24-21 Dalton lead at the half into a 36-29 Washington County lead at the two-minute mark. After a free throw by Dalton senior center Quanisha McCurty (14 rebounds, six blocks) cut the lead to 36-32, McNure’s third 3-pointer of the night, with under a minute to play in the quarter, pushed the margin back to seven, 39-32, at the end of the period.
Then McNure really caught fire. She drained her next three 3-pointers, the final one coming midway through the final period, to give Washington County its largest lead of the game, 54-41.
“I knew the game would probably come down to me hitting shots,” McNure said. “I prayed a lot about it, and he came through for me.”
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