Gordon Lee girls end year

ROME, Ga. — When pressed to provide the key reason for his team’s 72-56 loss to Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy in Saturday’s Class A state girls’ basketball quarterfinal at Georgia Highlands College, Gordon Lee coach Lester Galyon paused to collect his thoughts.

There was no coachspeak to glamorize the loss. No key moment when the game got away. This was just a case, as Galyon explained, of one team just being better than the other this day.

“I don’t think we played badly,” he said, “but at some point in the season you usually get that team that just plays better than you do and that’s it. You go home.”

The only glaring weakness in his Lady Trojans’ game Saturday was a penchant for missing short shots, especially in the second half when the Warriors clamped down on Gordon Lee star Kori Penland. After scoring 16 points in the first half that ended with her team behind 34-25, Penland got much more attention in the second half.

“We had to change our defensive approach,” said winning coach Jackie Ransom, whose team also eliminated Gordon Lee last year. “The plan was to play her straight up with our best defender and give her help, but that wasn’t working. She’s too good a scorer. So we went with a box-in-one, something we’ve had success with before, and it worked.”

With Penland being hassled at every turn, other Lady Trojans roamed free but missed too many shots. And with 5-foot-11 LaTanya Scott patrolling underneath for the Warriors, there were few second chances. The senior gobbled up 21 rebounds and often started fastbreaks with crisp passes.

“After they switched defenses on Kori, that’s when we got so many inside shots,” Galyon said. “But we missed them. We had several chances where Kori would draw two or three players to her and she would kick it inside, but we just couldn’t finish. We rushed a few, and I don’t know if it was the pressure of the game or their defense, but it seemed we just couldn’t make a short shot.”

If there were turning points, they came just before and after halftime. Holli Brooks had just finished off an 8-4 Gordon Lee run that cut the SACA lead to five with 1:40 to go in the first half when the Warriors appeared to play for the final shot. However, Briana Brown flashed open for a layup with 28 seconds to go, and after a Gordon Lee miss on the other end, the Warriors had an out-of-bounds play with four seconds to go.

A series of screens freed Scott on the far side of the basket, where she collected a perfect pass and completed the layup for a nine-point lead.

“That was huge right before the half, to give up those four points,” Galyon said. “Going in down five would have been good.”

A more phyiscal Gordon Lee team emerged from the locker room, scoring four straight points on layups by Jordan Bohannon, but SACA responded with a 9-2 run. Scott made a putback and Brown nailed a long 2-pointer to push the lead to 13. The Lady Trojans got no closer than 10 the rest of the way.

“I thought we played pretty good, but they just played better,” said Penland, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga signee who is Gordon Lee’s all-time leading scorer. “We had some chances, but we just missed too many shots, and they’re a real experienced team and they’ve gotten better, too.”

Mariah Eades led a balanced SACA scoring attack with 15 points. Scott, Brown and guard Precious Friend added 14 each. Penland finished her final game with 27 points and four assists.