Heritage girls rule Region 6-AAAA
For the second time in four years, the Heritage Lady Generals will open the Class 4A state tournament as region champions.
Second-seeded Heritage completed a dominating 3-0 run through the tournament, in which they outscored their opponents by an average of over 30 points a game.
Heritage 70, Ridgeland 27
A dominant first-half was more then enough of a boost to put Heritage into the semifinals last Monday night. Reagan Armour had 19 points. Emily Wiley added 17 and Ansley Bice finished with 14 as Heritage led 22-0 after one quarter and 37-6 at halftime.
Sarah Bandy and Elli Jost had four points each in the victory. Sydnee St. John, Kortney Mackenzie and Lauren Self all added three points, followed by Brooke Matherly with two and Riley Kokinda with one.
Heritage 66, Gilmer 39
Heritage trailed 9-6 after a low-scoring first period, but turned up the pressure on both ends of the floor in the final three quarters.
Bice had a team-high 23 points in Thursday’s win, followed by Wiley with 19 and Armour with 10. Kokinda and Haley Phillips had three points apiece. Bandy, St. John and Gracie Murray all had two points, while Jost and Abby Thompson added one apiece.
Heritage 80, Northwest 58
The two teams split their first two meet- ings by a combined four points, but Friday’s final had a result that no one saw coming.
The Lady Generals came out firing on all cylinders from the opening tip, torching the nets on the offensive end of the floor and clamping down on the defensive end before putting an exclamation point on the region championship.
Heritage led 26-11 at the end of the first period and was up by 25 early in the second quarter before going into halftime ahead 46-25.
Northwest used a 17-5 run in the second half to cut into the Lady Generals’ lead and they would briefly get to within 11 in the early stages of the fourth period. But standout post player Jada Griffin and point guard Tionna Baker would both foul out in the first half of the fourth and the Lady Bruins would never threaten again.
Wylie, voted the region’s Player of the Year, finished with 21 points, including an 8-of-9 performance at the free throw line. Armour not only played solid defense against Griffin, but finished the game with 19 points. Bandy went for 18, while Bice finished with 15. Four points from Kokinda, two by Phillips and one from St. John rounded out the scoring for the Lady Generals.
“This one kind of caps their careers, even though we have one or maybe even two games still left at home,” Bryant added. “I’m so proud. The hard work they’ve been putting in for the last four years all kind of came to a climax tonight with another region championship.
“We have six seniors (Bice, Wiley, Armour, Bandy, Phillips and Thompson) and they’ve all been great. They’ve done everything we’ve asked them to do. They’re all great basketball players and we’re going to miss them. I’m already getting a little emotional thinking about them not being here next year.”
Heritage (22-5) will host Chestatee in the first round of the state tournament this weekend. The game will begin at 6 p.m. this Friday, following by the boys’ state game. Gilmer defeated Pickens in the girls’ consolation game earlier on Friday.