TUNNEL HILL, Ga. - The Northwest Whitfield game plan was fairly obvious in Thursday night's GHSA Class AAAA second-round girls' playoff game against Henry County.
Defensively, the key was trying to slow sweet-shooting guard Brooke Moore. Offensively, there was one goal: Shoot it well enough to keep pace and win it at the end. Though the Lady Bruins' plan worked at times, Moore still had her big day and the Northwest shooting went cold at the wrong time in a 61-48 Henry County win.
"I thought we did well on Moore after she got off to a hot start," Northwest coach Greg Brown said. "But then their other scorers started hitting shots, and you just can't key on everybody. And we just couldn't hit anything in that third quarter. We picked back up late, but it was too much to overcome."
Moore, who came in hitting better than 50 percent from 3-point range, made her first three long-range shots as the visitors took a 9-5 lead. The Lady Bruins, though, hit four 3-pointers of their own in the first period - two by Holly Heath - as they tied the game at 14.
The momentum continued in the second quarter as Nicole Bates hit a 3-pointer and a free throw for a 23-16 Northwest lead. The margin grew to 27-18 on an M.E. Capehart layup, but the Lady Warhawks scored the half's final five points to cut the gap to four.
With Northwest continuing to hound Moore all over the court, Janaya Wadsworth stepped up in the third, scoring seven quick points, her layup giving Henry County a lead it wouldn't relinquish. The Lady Bruins missed seven consecutive 3-point shots and Moore found her stroke again to lead a 14-0 run that gave the visitors a 42-29 lead late in the period.
"We started moving the ball better and had better spacing," Henry County coach Jason Harris said. "We hoped they couldn't keep shooting like they did in the first half, and we closed out on them better."
Northwest (22-6) fell behind by as much as 17 before a late rally closed it to within 10, but it was too little too late.
"The girls played hard, but that's a really good team," Brown said. "We bring back a lot of girls next year, and hopefully they learned something from this."
Wadsworth and Lauryn Bailey backed Moore with 14 and 13 points for the Lady Warhawks (21-7), while Heath led Northwest with 14.
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6296; follow on Twitter @youngsports22