North Augusta Girls Defeat Lower Richland 42-34 To Advance To Finals Against Westside In SCHSL AAAA Competition
By Billy G. Baker
Publisher
Florence—The North Augusta girls (29-1) built a 19-10 first quarter lead over Lower Richland in the SCHSL AAAA lower State championship game at the Florence Civic Center on Monday (March, 3) and the Jackets went on to win the hard-fought contest 42-34.
North Augusta will now prepare to play Westside (23-3) for the AAAA state title to be played on Friday March, 7 at 2 p.m. in the Florence Civic Center. Westside nipped previously undefeated South Pointe(29-1) 59-58 on Monday.
NA led 19-10 at the half as both teams dominated on defense with poor shooting to begin the game. NA took a 27-23 lead into the final quarter. The Jackets made 11-of-15 free throws in the final period and this was the difference in the game.
North Augusta head coach Al Young shared his thoughts after the big win. “The free throws in the fourth quarter were very important and we talk about that all the time,” said Coach Young. “Free throws can win it for you or lose it for you.
“I am just so proud of our girls for making all the hard work pay off,” said Coach Young. “We knew our performance in the first half was not good enough and that we needed to come out in the second half and play much better.
“This group all have those own special characteristics,” said Coach Young. “This is a young group that has persevered, worked hard, and they keep surprising me I can tell you that.
“I am very emotional right now, and excited for the girls, who have worked hard after we lost last year we went back and they said they were going to work even harder this season to get back to the finals and they have accomplished what we set out to do,” said Coach Young. “I just hope we can finish the job.”
NA was led in scoring by junior point guard Kenedi Wright who had 13 points followed by junior forward Celena Grant with 11 points, and junior 6-2 center Messiah Williams with 8 points and double-digit rebounds.
The remaining point producers for the Jackets included sophomore Ashley Walker with seven points and junior Taylor Boney contributed three points.
Lower Richland (25-2) is head coached by former Richland Northeast all-star guard Aaron Lucas. ”Proud to have finished 25-2 in 4-A basketball and that is an excellent season for this team,” said Coach Lucas after the game. “We were proud to be one of the top four teams left in the state playing against one of the toughest teams in the state. Hats off to North Augusta; they played a heck of a ball game and I think our girls did a fantastic job as well.
“We are losing for seniors Taelor Hiller-Johnson who will be signing with Coker University and 5th year player ChiNya Isaac will be going out to Texas A & M International which is a high-level D-2 school in Texas,” said Coach Lucas. “Hopefully Sydney Cunningham, who came back to us from Heathwood Hall this year, will be going on to Winston Salem State University, and she is hoping to become a dentist. We are also hoping that senior Zamiyah Jackson gets a next level opportunity also.
“One of my proudest feelings about this team is that we had a 4.0 GPA as a team this season,” said Coach Lucas. “I am proud of them both on the court and in the class room.”
The Diamonds were led in scoring against NA by junior Jhnai Sumter who had 9 points while Issac and sophomore guard Mikayla Foster contributed 8 points each. Hiller-Johnson had six points and freshman J’vyanna Dingle had three points to round out LR-s scoring.
