There may be a state ranking of girls basketball teams that
puts Perry High deep in the 300s. That didn’t matter Friday when the Lady
Panthers, looking to win in Region 2-AAAA for only the second time all season
in its final regular-season chance, toppled the Veterans High Lady Warhawks as
the visiting team 57-49.
Aaliyah Cheatham made six 3-pointers for 33 points. She also
grabbed six rebounds and made three assists. Maya Wade added 11 points.
The Lady Warhawks finished the season with four region
losses in a row to slip to 4-10. Both teams had play-in games Monday to start
the 2-AAAA tournament at Westside High in Macon.
“Other than a Mary Persons game or a Rutland game – because
those two teams we don’t match up with – we’ve been in ball games,” said Lady
Panther coach Jeff Winston. “We were up big on Warner Robins in the first half.
We were up big on Howard in the first half.
“We were up big on Veterans, but unlike those games we were
able to hold the lead. We’re finally back at full strength. Some girls were
injured. We finally got our normal starting group. For a four-win basketball
team … I might say it’s the most enjoyable time I’ve ever had coaching.”
Winston’s team does include his twin daughters Keeley and
Courtney, and it was Courtney who, though shut out in the scoring column, led
Friday’s win in rebounds with nine. Curshala Riley, one of only two seniors,
had four steals.
“It was a group who was 3-21 coming in,” said coach Winston.
“They never give up. We play, and we get better. I was looking on Maxpreps, and
we were like the 331st ranked team in Georgia. I don’t care.
“Veterans had a good basketball team. I hate the fact that
Jalyn (Slaughter) has a sore shoulder. Bottom line is we played good defense,
were patient on offense, and that may be the most points we’ve scored all year
(54 the previous high on Dec. 8).”
Plus, it was a standing room only crowd in the Veterans gym,
cavernous by high school standards, and on the Warhawk senior night. One of
those seniors, Kerrigan Poe-Cochran, scored all 17 of her points in the second
half. She was 7-for-10 in free throws.
Slaughter scored 11, and Kya Cochran also did all of her
scoring, eight points, in the second half.
“There was a guy mocking me the whole time,” said Winston
about the spirited crowd. “I’m going to give him a fist pound because I found
it hilarious.”
His only other senior, April McCoy, had contributions that
weren’t many in numbers, but occurred at the right time.
“I think she had four points,” said Winston. “But she pestered
Jalyn, worked down low. There at the end, when they weren’t getting into our
press we came up with on the fly, she says. ‘Coach, I can do that.’ She did.
“Even the girls who didn’t get to play were in it the entire
time.”
Did this win give the Lady Panthers any momentum to at least
extend the season to Tuesday, when two bids to the GHSA AAAA state tournament
are on the line? Winston said it’s all a matter of the fourth quarter, which is
when the pressure usually does in the Lady Panthers. He said they’ve worked
much harder in practice in the past week, and just need to keep everything
together.
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