WAIT IS OVER
LFO girls program celebrates its first region championship in 12 years
No matter what happens from here on out for the LFO Lady Warriors, the 2021-2022 season will long be remembered for perhaps the greatest single-season turnaround in state history.
Winless a year ago, LFO claimed the program’s first region championship since 2010 with a 65-57 win over Murray County in the Region 6-AAA title game at LaFayette High School on Saturday night in front of 1,500 fans at Dan Priest Arena.
In one year’s time, the Lady Warriors have gone from 0-19 to 26-1. However, head coach Dewayne Watkins — an easy choice for Region 6-AAA Coach of the Year — said his team has stayed on an even keel ever since last season.
“Last year, we were going through a tough time, but you would never really know it if you just walked in one of our practices,” he recalled. “(The players) continued to stay engaged. The bottom line is, we had a feeling that we would be pretty good (this year).
“Now, did we think we would be 26-1 at this point? No. But we thought we’d be pretty good and we thought we would have a chance to compete (at the top at the region) because we knew some other teams had lost a lot (to graduation).
“We thought we would be a topfour team (in the region), but when we got to the preseason, that’s when it all started coming together and I liked what I saw. That’s when we started talking about, not just a region championship, but going further than that.”
After a 60-55 win at Murray County early in the season and a 56-50 home victory over the Lady Indians in mid-January, LFO found itself trailing 17-15 after the opening quarter on Saturday.
The Lady Warriors answered the bell with a massive 15-2 run that put them ahead 30-19, but any thoughts LFO had about a blowout victory were quickly forgotten. Murray County showed its moxie by battling back to end the period on a 16-5 run of its own and the two teams jogged to the locker room deadlocked 35 apiece.
The lead would be exchanged several times over the first three minutes of the third quarter. Lady Indian sharpshooter Ella Dotson put her team up 40-39 on a 3-pointer with 5:10 left in the quarter, only to see Christina Collins, who had battled first-half foul trouble, answer with a 3-pointer of her own for LFO.
Then, following a Murray County turnover, Collins made a strong move to the basket and completed a three-point play. Just 15 seconds later, Princess Simmons jumped in front of an ill-advised pass and drove in for a lay-up to complete an 8-0 run that put LFO up seven with under four minutes to go.
Murray County continued to fight back and trimmed the deficit to 46-43 in the third quarter, but that would be as close as they would get
the rest of the way.
LFO went back up by eight with 3:33 left in the game and the Lady Warriors iced it at the free throw line down the stretch.
Christen Collins scored 16 points on the night, nine in the first quarter. She was hampered most of the evening with foul trouble, but finished 8 of 9 at the charity stripe. Christina Collins and Angel Simmons each had 15 points, while Simmons connected on 9 of 10 free throws to help
LFO finish the game 23 of 30 from the line.
Princess Simmons scored nine points and Gracie Cochran added six. Skye Alexander had three on a big third quarter 3-pointer and Zoey Gray-Martin added one.
Dotson scored 20 points, but fouled out in the fourth quarter. Alyssa Usery scored 13 and Nuckolls matched her with 13.
LFO was slated to host Hart County (15-12) in the opening round this week, while Murray County (20-6) will
entertain Franklin County (14-13).
LFO GIRLS 62, SONORAVILE 41
The Lady Warriors used a smothering pressure defense to frustrate the fourth-seeded Lady Phoenix in a semifinal game on Friday night.
LFO recorded 24 steals and forced numerous other turnovers throughout the game. The Warriors briefly trailed 7-2, but rallied for a 28-22 halftime lead before methodically pulling away
in the second half.
Christen Collins led the way with 21 points, adding four rebounds and six steals, while Christina Collins had 18 points, seven rebounds, two assists and two steals. Angel Simmons added 12 points and six steals, while Princess Simmons had eight points and five rebounds to go with her team-best nine steals.
The rest of the scoring included two points from Mercedes Thompson and one point by Star Alexander.