The Northwest Whitfield girls’ basketball program is a regular participant in the GHSA state tournament, but the Lady Bruins haven’t made a deep postseason run in more than a decade.
That’s changing this year after Northwest led from the start to defeat Bainbridge 45-34 Friday night in Tunnel Hill in the second round of the Class AAAA tourney. It’s the first time since 2010 the Lady Bruins have won more than one state playoff game, and it came about as their always stingy defense put the clamps down.
“That was huge again tonight,” Northwest coach Bob Williams said. “They were a big team with 6-foot-2 and 5-11 girls, but we did a really good job of limiting their baskets. Defense is what we hang our hat on, and we’ve played really good defense since Christmas.”
The Lady Bruins (21-9) trailed 17-15 after one quarter but held Bainbridge (18-11) to three points from then until halftime. The Northwest offense was stymied as well, but back-to-back 3-pointers from Sloan Pender and Emma Hayes gave the hosts a lead they wouldn’t surrender.
Whitley Chumley led Northwest with 13 points, with Kennedy Baker adding 12 and Autumn Wiley eight.