Lumpkin girls basketball advances to Final Four

UPDATE: The LCHS girls basketball team has advanced to the Final Four with its 64-55 win over Pierce County in the Elite Eight on Tuesday. The Indians are set to host their Final Four matchup with Cross Creek this Friday, March 5 at the Lumpkin County High School gym.
Earlier in the week, the Lady Indians defeated No. 5 ranked Westminster High School 58-40 to send them through to the State Elite Eight.
With 1:20 left in the third quarter, one of the opposing players rolled her eyes, likely in disbelief, following what seemed to be the 50th straight bucket by the Indians, this time courtesy of a Lexi Pierce three pointer.
The run continued for the final 80 seconds of the quarter. When it was over, Lumpkin had taken its six-point lead that carried over from the first half and turned it into a 26 point lead.
The victory over Westminster was Lumpkin’s second of the week, following a 58-49 victory over Rockmart in the first round of the state playoffs.
As for that scoring frenzy, which started with a 12-0 run to begin the second half and resulted in a 25-5 run for the quarter as a whole, head coach David Dowse said it was nothing more than tightening up their defensive pressure.
“We just said ‘Look, we’re not pressuring the basketball like we’re capable of. We’re not utilizing our athleticism and our ability to pressure the ball. We’re being too easy on them. Let’s get up and pressure the ball. Let’s switch that high ball screen that we’re trying to send, let’s get up in passing lanes and get out in transition,’ and I thought that’s what we did,” Dowse said. “I think we got maybe 15 points off of turnovers there in that quarter alone. They’re a very athletic team themselves and it’s a difficult task to just try to get out in transition off of just a defensive rebound and go. You’ve got to turn them over a bit and then get out and run and we were able to do that.”
From there, the offense was able to take off, as freshman phenom Averie Jones found yet another level, scoring seven of the team’s first 12 to set the tone for the second half, finishing with a game-high 27 points.
Dowse credits Jones’ spectacular playmaking abilities, as well as her senior backcourt counterpart, Isabel Davenport, who facilitates the offense from the court.
“Averie stood out for sure with her scoring, but I also thought Isabel did a tremendous job dealing with backcourt pressure, dealing with double teams, making good decisions when double teams came, getting the ball to her teammates,” he said. And down the stretch when we said ‘hey, we’re going to spread them out, let’s eat some clock here,’ it took a couple of timeouts but after a couple of timeouts they understood that and I thought Isabel played a very important role in keeping them calm and managing the clock and the score.”
Westminster, who was missing arguably its best player allegedly due to concerns with the expected number of non-masked fans in attendance, put up a fight until the end, however the large deficit was too much to overcome, sending the Indians into the next round.

GAME ONE

However, just getting to the Sweet 16 game was a challenge in itself, as Lumpkin drew a tough Rockmart team, which is home to Indiana-commit Keyarah Berry, whose scored over 3000 points in her high school career.
Berry dazzled early, drawing much of the attention and freeing up shooters along the outside. Combined with her strong driving ability, Berry’s teammates made the shots necessary to put pressure on the higher seeded Indians. But as the game went on, Berry was forced to shoulder more and more of the load, eventually wearing down and allowing the Indians to take over. Despite trailing at the end of the first, second and third quarters, Lumpkin claimed the lead in the fourth and eventually pulled away enough to clinch the win.

COMMUNITY SUPPORT

Thanks to the Indians’ Region Tournament win, Lumpkin was able to host its first two playoff games, which just added to the buzz surrounding the team.
“The excitement in our school, you can feel it,” Dowse said. “You’ve got kids coming up, patting you on the back saying that we’re going to be there tonight. It’s really exciting in the school but when you look out and see it’s not just the school and it’s not just faculty, but it’s an entire community that’s embracing this group, I told them in the locker room, ‘That crowd out there, that’s what you did. That’s what your hard work and your dedication and your commitment to this program has done. You’ve ignited an entire community.’”
However, Lumpkin will be leaving the home field advantage behind, traveling 300 miles south to Blackshear to face Pierce County.
“The only thing that really is different is figuring out how you want to travel, what day you want to leave, what day you want to come back, you have to plan an itinerary for gameday, how many stops you’re going to make, where you’re going to eat, how long you’re going to stay there, we’re probably going to try and find a gym on the way down where we can stop and shoot a little bit, but all of that falls on me and the coaches,” Dowse said. “As far as the girls go, it’s a long ride, but other than that, it’s what they’re accustomed to. It’s still a basketball gym.”
The Indians are scheduled to play at Pierce County at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, with a Final Four appearance on the line. With a win, Lumpkin would host the Final Four match on Friday, March 5.