Lady Generals in Elite Eight for second time

It takes skill, talent and luck to win in the state playoffs, along with a lot of heart and guts and a willingness to not quit.

All of those factors came into play for the Heritage Lady Generals in the first two rounds and, as a result, the Lady Generals advanced to the Elite Eight for just the second time in program history, the last coming in 2019.

Heritage rallied to force overtime at Fayette County last Tuesday before winning in overtime and they scored with five seconds left on Friday to squeeze past Monroe of Albany at home.

“They’re just scrappy, mentally tough and they believe,” said head coach Greg Elkins. “I think the players have done a good job of executing the game plans, but I think our coaches have done a good job of bouncing ideas off each other during the week and putting us in good position to make our players successful.

“Our players are just resilient, too. We got down four (last) Tuesday night late in the fourth quarter and ended up winning the game and then (Friday), down one with 16 seconds left, we end up winning the game. I think that just speaks absolute volumes about what our players are about. I’m just super proud of them.”

HERITAGE GIRLS 44, FAYETTE COUNTY 39

The No. 3 seed from Region 7 traveled to the home of the Region 5 runner-up and jumped out to a 13-4 lead after the first quarter. However, the Lady Tigers cut the deficit to 21-15 by halftime and then held the Lady Generals to just five points in the third as they rallied to take a 27-26 lead.

But the Navy-and-Red got the score back to even at the end of regulation before

points of quarter, including a Gracie Cochran lay-up that beat the buzzer and gave the Lady Warriors a comfortable 22-8 lead.

The Lady Bulldogs, however, continued to stick around and cut into the deficit in the second quarter, eventually pulling to within 30-22 at intermission. But as they did to start the first half, LFO opened the second half on a 12-0 run over the first 4:30 of the third to make it a 20-point game at 42-22.

However, Hart County countered with their own 12-0 run to get back in the game and they scored the first six points of the final quarter to suddenly make it a five-point game, 45-40, with 6:16 to play.

Christen Collins and Skye Alexander got much-needed back-to-back buckets for the home team and the LFO defense forced a Hart County turnover with 5:20 to play before LFO began running some clock.

They methodically built the lead back to nine with two minutes to go, while Cochran came up big on the boards late. She grabbed a key offensive rebound with 1:13 remaining and hit 1 of 2 free throws before grabbing a Hart County miss with a minute to go. That rebound led to two free throws by Christina Collins with 55 seconds left, which iced the win.

“We normally have pretty good first and third quarters,” head coach Dewayne Watkins said. “That’s been

our best two quarters most of the year. We kind of lost our focus late in the third for a little bit, but we were able to gather ourselves.”

Christina Collins, honored at halftime for scoring her 1,000th career point in the region tournament, made 8 of 10 free throws in the second half and finished with a game-high 24 points. Christen Collins added 14. Cochran and Simmons both scored seven, while Alexander and Princess Simmons each added two.

Dakota Phillips put up 19 gutsy points for Hart County (15-13) in a losing effort.

LFO GIRLS 61, THOMSON 47

The Lady Warriors led by a narrow 12-9 margin after the first quarter, but piled up 22 points in the second quarter to build a 34-23 lead at intermission.

The Lady Bulldogs outscored LFO 16-10 in the third to chop the lead down to five, 44-39, by the end of period. However, the Redand-White refused to let them get any closer.

Christen Collins scored nine of her 20 points in the final stanza and LFO outscored Thomson 17-8 over the final eight minutes.

Collins had three of LFO’s seven 3-pointers on the night. Christina Collins finished with 15 points. Angel Simmons had 13 points with three 3-pointers and Princess Simmons added nine points, while Cochran and Zoey GrayMartin each dropped in two.

LFO also enjoyed a big night at the free throw line as it made 10 of 12 attempts.

Ty’Leishah Lattimore had 17 points for Thomson (16-8), while Aaliyah Belton added 11.