Trinity Collegiate wins SCISA AAAA girls basketball state championship

        Sumter – When Trinity Collegiate held a 17-9 lead after the first quarter of the SCISA AAAA girls basketball state championship game against First Baptist on Friday, everyone associated with the team knew it was going to be a good day.

       “In the first quarter we knew it was our game,” said junior wing Autumn Kind. “So we just kept it up.”

       The Titans took a 31-21 lead into halftime and then just blew the game completely open midway through the third quarter. TC scored the final 20 points of the stanza on the way to a 65-40 blowout at Sumter County Civic Center.

       Trinity finished the year with a 21-3 record in its first season under head coach Bree Goodson. The Hurricanes finished the year with a 29-3 record.

       Kind and senior point guard Makayla Leggette did all the scoring for the Titans in the first quarter. Leggette had 11, including connecting on three 3-point baskets. Kind had the other six.

       “Today I told them we were going to go out and play our type of basketball,” Goodson said. “We’re going to play tough defense, get steals off of our defense and get points off of that.

       “I was very pleased because in the past we normally don’t have a fast start. They did it in the game that counts.”

       FB righted the ship a bit in the second quarter, going into the locker room only trailing by 10. Also, TC was in serious foul trouble as Leggette had four and senior forward Natalie Pitts had three.

       When Ava Rush hit a basket with 3:57 remaining in the third quarter, First Baptist was within 38-30. All bets were off after that though.

       Senior shooting guard Salease Kind hit a layup to immdediately put the lead back in double digits and Autumn Kind drained a trey 17 seconds later to make it 43-30. After a free throw by Leggette, Salease Kind converted a 3-point play, Leggette came up with a steal and a layup and hit two free throws to make it 51-30 with 2:14 to go.

       Salease Kind and Jameson Sheehy drained consecutive 3s and Autumn Kind hit a free throw to make it 58-30 going into the final quarter.

       “The third quarter is usually our quarter,” Goodson said. “We came out and wanted to push the tempo, and that’s what we did.”

       “We just wanted to leave it all on the court and help each other out,” said Leggette, who led the Titans with 20 points. “We just had to stick to solid defense and getting in no foul trouble.”

       First Baptist head coach Presley Singleton said her team just didn’t respond when Trinity Collegiate forced the issue.

“I just told them we came and got punched in the mouth, and we didn’t respond to it,” said Singleton. “We started pressing ourselves and we didn’t play the way we had all season. I’m disappointed, they’re disappointed, because we’re better than the way we played today.

"They had four girls who are seniors who have been on this stage, and they played like it,” added Singleton, who will have all five of her starters back next season.

Autumn Kind finished with 19 for the Titans, while Salease Kind had 17. Sheehy added five, and Pitts had four.

Freshman guard Maddy Pojani led the Hurricanes with 15 points. Junior guard Paige Pouyat had eight, Rush, a junior, had six, and sophomore guard Gabby Moore had four. Junior Dyarri Braddick had three and sophomore Emily Easterlin had two.

        Leggette and Autumn Kind were selected to the All-Tournament team from Trinity, while First Baptist had Pojani and Moore selected.. The other two picks were Heathwood Hall's Lauren Jacobs and Northwood Academy's Maliyah Birch were the other two picks.

Leggette and the Kinds said getting to hoist the championship trophy is the culmination of a lot of work.

“It means a lot,” Leggette said. “We’ve been playing since we were little kids and this is all we ever wanted. (Coach Goodson just told us to) play hard and give it all we got every day.”

“We’re like family,” Autumn Kind said. "No matter what happens, we all stick together.”

“We worked hard for this,” said Salease Kind. “We worked very hard for this moment. The accomplishment is a great moment for us.”