Lady Indians pull out win to challenge for region crown
REGION 7-AA SEMIFINALS: Armuchee girls 55, Dade County 51
After matching up with Dade County three times during the regular season, the Armuchee Lady Indians knew what they needed to look for as they went up against them in the Region 7-AA semifinals Friday.
What they got was a 32- minute thriller that wasn’t decided until the final buzzer sounded.
Armuchee fought back a toughminded Lady Wolverine squad and offensive frustration on the way to a 55-51 win and the chance to face Model today at 7 p. m. in the region title game at Model High School.
“I’m really excited,” Armuchee coach Michelle Arp said. “Our girls have worked really hard to earn the chance to play for the region championship. We’ll just go out tomorrow and have everybody pull every capability they have and put in 32 minutes of focus.”
Down 46-44 with three minutes left in the game, Armuchee (17-8) got a spark from back-to-back layups from Elizabeth Newberry to kick off an 11-2 run that continued until Dade’s Cassidy Cole hit her fifth 3-pointer at the buzzer.
Rebekah Hammond hit 5 of 6 free throws down the stretch to give the Lady Indians their biggest lead of the night, 55- 48, before Cole’s last-second trey. Overall, the team was 11- of- 15 at the line.
“This was the fourth time we’ve seen them this season and each time they’ve pretty much upped their pressure in the fourth quarter and we needed to be prepared for that tonight,” Arp said.
“We talked about needing to rebound and box out, needing to handle their press and needing to make our free throws. We made our free throws, and that was huge at the end of the game.”
Four Lady Indians reached the scoring column and Newberry led the way with 14 points, 10 of which came in the decisive fourth quarter.
Katie Copeland hit a trio of 3’s on her way to 13 points, Livia Skinner completed a double- double with 11 points and 12 rebounds, and Hammond had 10 points.
The game got off to a slow start as Copeland hit a three 12 seconds into the game to put Armuchee up 3-0 before the Lady Indians went on a six minute, 27 second dry spell as Dade County took a 6- 3 lead.
Skinner got a layup off of a turnover with 1: 31 to go in the first quarter and Newberry hit two foul shots with 8.3 seconds left to put Armuchee up 7-6 heading into the second.
The back-and-forth scoring took center stage in the second until Skinner and Anna McBurnett hit 3’s to end the first half and put the Lady Indians up 22- 17 at the break.
Dade County (17-9) will take on Darlington at 2 p.m. in the Region 7-AA consolation finals to determine third and fourth place.