Girls basketball will play for State championship Friday

For the first time in the school’s history, the Lumpkin County High School Girls Basketball team will play for a state championship.
And while the thoughts of Lumpkin County housing a state championship in one of the major team sports seemed unfathomable to most just a short time ago, head coach David Dowse has been planning for this week for nearly five years.
“I remember my first year here, at the banquet, I felt like we dug our feet in and began the culture change and you could see that it was going to get better,” Dowse said. “I remember telling all those girls, in particular the seniors that would be leaving us, that someday we’re going to play for a state championship and doggone it we’re going to win one.”
Now after knocking off Westminster in the Final Four on Saturday, Dowse and his team are just two days from the opportunity to do just that.
“I want every one of those girls, even the ones that are no longer in our program, to know that they were a part of this,” he said. “They are a part of building what we have right now. We have some really talented kids, but it takes more than that. It takes a buy in and a work ethic and they have that.”
Lumpkin defeated Westminster 64-42 on Saturday in Milledgeville to advance to the State Championship Game where they will face Greater Atlanta Christian.
“The girls are handling it great,” Dowse said of the team’s playoff journey. “And I told them before we got on the bus to come over here, ‘we’re going to have a bunch of people here cheering for you and they’re going to love you no matter what happens today,’ but we do feel a responsibility to bring something special like this back to our little town and come next Friday, we’re coming guns ablazing.”
After taking care of Cross Creek, who knocked Lumpkin out of the playoffs in the Final Four last season, the Indians fended off a bit of a revenge opportunity themselves in Westminster. Lumpkin was responsible for eliminating Westminster last year, ending its season in the Sweet 16 in the absence of the Wildcats’ best player, Courtney Ogden, who allegedly didn’t make the trip to Lumpkin due to concerns with the school’s COVID-19 policies at the time.
Now with Ogden, who committed to play at Stanford University following her high school career back in November, it seemed Westminster was looking to extract some revenge of its own.
“That was absolutely something we talked about,” Dowse said of Westminster’s approach. “We were the target because I’m sure, and I’ve heard it, the reason that we beat them last time and we only beat them by 18 is because Courtney Ogden didn’t play. Well, she played today and we beat them by 22. That doesn’t take anything away from her terrific talent, but we’ve got a doggone good basketball team and I’m proud of our kids.”
Dowse’s squad, who’s put emphasis on “The Team” all season long, had its teamwork on full display, with four players all scoring in double digits, led by point guard Lexi Pierce’s 20 points. Dowse said he allows the opposing coach to “pick their poison,” when it comes to who will lead his team in scoring. The coach said he is constantly impressed with his girls’ ability to keep the ball in the hot hand from game to game and even from one possession to another.
“Even within the game, because early, Mary is hitting threes and Lexi was pretty steady and then Averie got going and knocked down a couple and Kate’s cleaning the glass and getting stick-backs,” he said of the Indians’ multi-faceted attack. “If I’m an opposing coach, it’s hard even within the game because here comes Mary hitting some shots, so we’re giving our attention to Mary and then Averie gets hot and then we’re turning our attention to Averie, that’s a tall order.”
Pierce, who had Lumpkin’s hot hand throughout, said it comes with the team’s chemistry.
“It feels good, but I couldn’t do it without any of my teammates,” she said of her scoring outburst in Saturday’s game. “They’re the ones who put me in a position to score. They know when someone’s hot and they give them the ball and it’s a good feeling.”
While Ogden had a game-high 24 for Westminster, the team’s second scoring option, Stella Chartrand, was held scoreless until the fourth quarter, as Ogden’s teammates only managed to contribute 18 points combined, holding them well short of Lumpkin on the scoreboard.
“Defensively, we didn’t change anything we do,” Dowse said. “We did the same thing we did all year as far as what we were running defensively, with an emphasis to [Ogden] and an understanding that we were going to try and make her go over the top and she does some, but we’re not going to let her get to the rim. And then we’re not going to let these other kids score and I don’t think there was a whole lot of scoring outside of Courtney Ogden and it’s hard for one person to shoulder all of that and beat a team like we have.”
And now, one game away from bringing back Lumpkin’s first state championship in basketball, Pierce reflected on the opportunity to play for a state championship and what it would mean to win it all.
“That’s a once in a lifetime thing,” she said. “You get to tell your family and your kids about this when you get older and it’s just something that you put in your core memory….It would mean a lot because this would be the first time that Lumpkin County has ever brought home a state championship, so it would mean so much to our community. Them being there for us makes it even more special.”
Dowse said that the trip has already been special, thanks to the community’s excitement.
“Every time I turned around on the bench, it looked like our crowd was bigger,” he said. “I know they were louder. I expected Westminster, frankly, to bring a few more than they did, but this was definitely Dahlonega three. We had Dahlonega up at [home], brought it to Cross Creek and then down to Milledgeville. It’s special. You can feel it and with every step of the way you feel it a little more. Little honks as you’re stopping at an intersection or people rolling down their window at the gas station to say hi and good luck, it’s really cool.”
As for Dowse, he hopes that Friday evening will only be the start of the celebration to come in Lumpkin County.
“I think it would be one heck of a celebration,” he said. “I could see the square downtown filling up and it being one big party….They’ll be a personal satisfaction for that, but my wife said something to me before I took off on this trip, just commenting on how important these girls are to me and throughout my career, how important the girls are. I’m a hard guy to play for. I’m a hard guy to play for in practice, I’m a hard guy to play for during games. I’m a hard guy to play for, but for them to trust me and for their parents to trust me with their kids and for their parents to trust me with their kids and to really hold them accountable and be tough with them, and then to see it through, that would be really special.”
Lumpkin is set to tip off one final time this season against GAC at 1 p.m. on Friday, March 11 in the Macon Coliseum.