TUNNEL HILL, Ga. — Youth and inexperience often lead to sleepless nights for basketball coaches. For Northwest Whitfield High School girls’ coach Bob Williams, it has been a blessing this postseason.
The Lady Bruins extended their postseason winning streak to five games — the past four by three points or less — with a 56-54 victory over Westminster in the second round of the GHSA Class AAAA state tournament Friday night.
While the game was at home for the surprising Region 7 champions, the visiting Wildcats (22-8) came in with a reputation as one of the state’s top teams — six of their previous seven losses came to Georgia teams ranked inside their respective classification’s top five. Williams’ youthful team, though, was never in awe.
“I’m so proud of them. I told them after the game, ‘One thing I love about you guys is you’re not scared of anybody,'” said Williams, whose Lady Bruins (20-10) will host Hardaway in a quarterfinal Tuesday. “This was a great team we beat tonight, but maybe they are so young they don’t know the difference, but whatever it is, they are just playing really well right now.”
Sophomore guard Kennedy Baker, the hero of Northwest’s first-round win over East Hall, scored eight of her team-high 18 points in the final quarter, including the winning free throws with five seconds left. All of her points in the last period came from the charity stripe, where she was 8-of-10, including the final two after the visitors had rallied from a seven-point deficit to tie the game.