Sports
North Cobb Season Ends One Step Shy of Final Four
The Lady Warriors lose to region rival Campbell 58-53.
Beating a team three times in one season is never easy; beating a team three times in one month is almost impossible. During Saturday's AAAAA girls state quarterfinal game in Fort Valley, learned that lesson the hard way.
After beating Campbell twice in February, the Lady Warriors came up short in their bid to get win No. 3 against the Lady Spartans, falling 58-53.
"We knew they were capable of beating us," North Cobb head coach Matt Williams said of Campbell after the game. "They can beat anybody. We can beat anybody. You just have to play your A game, and we didn't play our A game today."
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The two teams traded the lead in the first quarter, and Campbell was able to forge a five-point lead going into halftime. However, the tide of the game really changed late in the third quarter. With 1:01 left in the period, North Cobb seemed to have some momentum after a Jarae Savage basket cut the Campbell lead to 34-29. However, the final 61 seconds of the third changed everything.
Campbell scored nine points during the short time span, and North Cobb star guard Kira Gordon picked up her fourth foul.
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"We had some letdowns, and they took advantage of it," Williams said of the backbreaking final minute of the third.
In only 61 seconds, the Lady Warrior's 34-29 deficit turned into a 43-33 Campbell lead.
That was the score North Cobb trailed by going into the fourth, a deficit the Warriors would never cut below seven until the closing moments.
Although Gordon was in foul trouble for most of the second half, the junior guard still managed to score a game-high 20 points. North Cobb also got strong scoring efforts from Amber Reeves, who scored 13, and Briah Woods, who finished the game with nine.
George Washington-bound Baylee Hawkins led the way for Campbell; the 5-foot-3-inch point guard scored a team-high 16 points. The Lady Spartans also got strong scoring efforts from Erica Norwood and Chakecia Miller, who scored 12 and 11 points.
Campbell advanced to the Final Four for the first time in Coach Randy McClure's 26-year tenure at the school. The Lady Spartans had been 0-8 in state quarterfinal games.