Gritty Lady Ramblers see season come to a close
Funny things can sometimes happen in post-season play and a little something funny happened at Southeast Whitfield High School last Monday night as the second game of the Region 6-AAAA girls’ basketball tournament saw the third-seeded Lady Raiders knocked out of the tournament with a 40-33 upset loss to sixth-seeded Gilmer on their own home floor.
Seventh-seeded LaFayette watched the end of that game from the side of the gym, hoping to get a chance to make a little postseason magic of their own.
Unfortunately for the Orange-and-Black, the second-seeded Heritage Lady Generals made sure it didn’t happen.
A 20-0 first-quarter run and a 9-0 secondquarter run were more than enough to suck all the drama out of the gym and Heritage coasted into the semifinals with a 65-30 victor, ending a tough season for LaFayette.
The two teams exchanged baskets in the opening 20 seconds, but Heritage’s full-court press would change things in a hurry. The Lady Generals recorded several steals and forced LaFayette into several turnovers, leading to easy lay-ups at the other end of the court.
Heritage, substituting five fresh players every four minutes in the opening half, led 28-7 after the game’s first eight minutes. The Lady Generals, who called off the press midway through the first quarter, extended their lead to 39-7 in the second quarter before taking a 47-10 lead at the break.
The Lady Generals played their starters for less than three minutes to begin the second half before giving way to their reserves for the rest of the evening.
Megan Wilson had 14 points for LaFayette (1-23), whose season came to a close. Seniors Jada Allmon and Hannah Blevins had five and three points, respectively, while Nicky Yancy added four.
LaFayette head coach Holly Rhudy said sickness and injuries took their toll on her team all season long.
“We ended up losing two starters and it seemed like every time we’d turn around, we’d lose somebody else,” she lamented. “We might get them back eventually and then we’d lose someone else or lose that player again. It was hard to build any team chemistry because we never really knew from night to night which players we were going
to have out there.
“Several times this year, we had three freshmen starting. I know it was tough on them to go against (experienced) varsity players, but I think that will only help them improve in the future.
“It’s been a learning season for us to see what we need to do to get better. The offseason starts now. We have to ask ourselves what we can do to make ourselves better. We’ve got some kids that are going to play AAU ball and hopefully that experience will help us in the future too.”
Rhudy said she her team will miss its three seniors, Allmon, Blevins and Morgan Harris, who missed most of the year with an injury.
“The toughness they showed is what we’re going to miss most,” she explained. “It didn’t matter who we played, those girls wanted to go hard all the time. We have to instill that in our younger players, no matter who we’re playing.”