North Augusta Goes Back-To-Back With 63-50 Win Over Westside
North Augusta and Westside met for the third time in the past five years to challenge for the state championship with the Yellowjackets earning the win 49-35.
By Neill Kirkpatrick
Special to the HSSR
Columbia – Saturday afternoon at Colonial Life Arena was a rematch of last season’s girls AAAA state final between North Augusta and Westside, won by North Augusta 49-35, in fact this was the third time in the past five years that this two teams have met for the state championship Westside won the first meeting 44-40 in OT so you could say that this was the rubber match.
The Yellow Jackets had two big runs, one to begin the game (6-0) and one at the end of the third quarter (7-0) that coincidentally was the final margin of their 63-50 victory over the Rams of Westside. While this made it back-to-back, it was also the Yellow Jacket’s seventh title in the last 10 years.
North Augusta head coach Al Young said, “We needed to come out with a lot of intensity and play hard especially on the defensive end. They have a really good team that is well balanced with the big girl inside and shooters all over the court. I just that is would take a lot of heart and hard work to defend them. We also did a good job of not making mistakes.”
Coach continued, “Going into games we always find out who the scorers are and it is our goal to take them away. I thought we did a good job of that and we did a good job all year with taking away their scorers.”
Westside head coach Jackie Roberts said, “They executed their game plan very well. We have faced that type of defense all year with one girl behind Khalia and one in front but they made it extremely difficult on us all night.”
North Augusta finished the year 28-1 winning their final 27 games in dominating fashion. They outscored their opponents by over 1000 points and in the playoffs they were just as dominate outscoring their five opponents by 141 points.
Westside had their 18-game winning streak snapped and finished the year 27-2. Their only loss on the season was to North Mecklenburg (Charlotte area school) in overtime 56-55. They were as dominate as the Yellow Jackets outscoring their opponents by over 900 points, however, they played a couple of tight games in the playoffs.
North Augusta opened the game on a 6-0 run and maintained a lead throughout the quarter and pushed it 19-11 before Westside came storming back with a 6-0 run of their own. The quarter ended with the Yellow Jackets on top 19-17.
Senior Celena Grant scored six to lead the Yellow Jackets while senior MaKyhia Paul scored six points in the quarter for the Rams to keep them close and helped closed the gap to two points at the end of quarter.
The second quarter started with Grant hitting a three to stop a Rams 6-0 run. The Rams continued to chip away at the lead and finally tied at 24 when Monasia Clinkscales hit one of two free throws.
North Augusta’s Taylor Boney scored her only basket of the game at the buzzer to give the Yellow Jackets a 26-24 lead at the half.
The Yellow Jackets would start the third quarter by extending their two-point lead to nine at 36-27 two minutes into the quarter. Ashley Walker scored a three the old fashion way and Azaria Sapp nailed a three to give the Yellow Jackets that nine point lead.
Westside’s Paul hit a two and Harmoni Earn hit a three to cut the lead to five at 39-34. That would be as close as the Rams would get the rest of the game as the Yellow Jackets would go on a decisive 7-0 run to end the third and start the fourth quarter.
The run would push the lead to 12 at 46-34. Earn would score under the basket to stop the run and slash the lead to ten but the Yellow Jackets would increase the lead to 57-44 with three minutes remaining. The rest of the game was academic as each team scored to make the final 63-50.
North Augusta was led in scoring by Grant and Sapp with 15 points each. Walker added 11 and Messiah Williams and Kenedi Wright added 10 points each. Williams had a game high 12 rebounds to go with two blocks.
For Westside Paul and Tiana Marshall had 12 points each to lead the Rams with Earn the only other Ram in double figures with 11.
