RINGGOLD, Ga. - High school coaches often get the feeling their speeches - no matter how often they are recited - fall on deaf ears.
That's not the case, apparently, with the Heritage girls' basketball team, which used a strong start to the second half Friday to defeat Region 6-AAAA rival Northwest Whitfield 65-51.
Heritage (20-2) and Northwest (16-4) are tied atop the 6-AAAA standings at 9-1 with two region games remaining. If each team wins out, there will be a coin flip to determine the top seed for the region tournament.
"Coach always talks about the third quarter, specifically the first three minutes of the third quarter, and how important it is," Heritage senior point guard Tori Harvey said. "Hitting our shots early in the second half built up our confidence and we took it from there."
Most of those shots belonged to super sophomore Emily Wiley, who scored the Lady Generals' first seven points of the period and ended it with 11 on her way to a game-high 23. Her short runner was followed by a 3-pointer in the quarter's first minute, expanding a three-point halftime lead to eight and causing Northwest coach Greg Brown to call a quick timeout.
"Emily has been kind of slumping lately with her shot, but she went to more of the intermediate game today and did a tremendous job," Heritage coach Eddie Bryant said. "She did this last year at their place when she scored 21, so it was nice to see that kind of production again."
Wiley was also given the chore of trying to contain electric Northwest point guard Bria Clemmons, specifically keeping her from going left and getting into the lane. Her penetration and kickouts for open 3-pointers were a large part of Northwest's 10-point win a month ago.
"The big thing was to keep Bria out of the lane and to try and keep her off her left hand, and in the third quarter we did a great job of doing that," Bryant said. "Emily did a great job on Bria, and I think she frustrated her a lot."
The Lady Bruins, though, stayed around and got within two on Zarria Nelson's 3-pointer with a minute to play in the third quarter. However, Wiley and Harvey ended the period with back-to-back strong drives and a 45-39 lead.
Harvey scored four points early in the fourth, including a layup off a strong pass from Ansley Bice, as Heritage built a 52-41 lead. Northwest, with its long-range game suffering a rare off night, never got closer than eight the rest of the way.
"To be honest, those 3s they shot just weren't going down and on other nights they do," Bryant warned. "We're very comparable, and I really think somewhere down the road we will see them again."
Shayla Ludy added 15 points and was disruptive defensively with five steals, while Harvey finished with 14 points.
Jada Griffin led Northwest with 10.
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6296. Follow him on Twitter @youngsports22.