WHITE, Ga. – Some things just become second nature for basketball players as they mature, and with those rare seniors who have started most of their careers, coaches need to say very little to get the point across.
So with Northwest Whitfield trailing by three points in the final 30 seconds of the Region 7-AAAA semifinal Tuesday against Gilmer County, Halle Ford wasn’t worried when the called play fell through. The senior guard just found a way to get open behind the 3-point line and pulled the trigger.
That got the Lady Bruins to overtime, where they dominated on their way to a 53-40 win and a berth in tonight’s championship game against River Ridge.
“It was simple there: Get the ball into our big-time player’s hands,” Northwest Whitfield coach Greg Brown said of Ford’s big shot. “It didn’t exactly go as planned, but she knows in that situation we want the ball in her hands. I knew when it left her hand it was going in, no doubt in my mind.”
Ford was supposed to get the ball off a screen but the Lady Bobcats sniffed it out, so she had to go through the middle of the lane and got the ball two steps behind the arc before cutting loose.