Demonettes squeak by Grovetown to preserve undefeated season

WARNER ROBINS — The Warner Robins Demonettes (9-0) gave the Screamin’ Demon Invitational its first close game with their 66-62 win over the Grovetown Lady Warriors (8-6) on Saturday.

Here are three observations from the Day 2 opener:

Close call

This is the closest final score the Demonettes have had all season.

Their four-point margin is just one of two games this season they’ve had a single digit margin of victory. They have more wins by 20-plus points (five) than less than 10.

There were a lot of factors that contributed to that, one of them being a great man-to-man defense by Grovetown according to Warner Robins coach Rebecca White.

“It’s probably the toughest man-to-man defense we’ve [faced] all year,” White said. “I think what helped us at the end is just maturity. Being able to get somebody to score…We’re out of shape, we haven’t played since Dec. 10, and that hurts you. Grovetown’s played three games since then. I think that in game [pace] is what really got us.”

Defensive rebounding

Closing out the defensive glass has been an ongoing issue for the Demonettes, who are not a big team.

Verkesia Fuller is their lone big down low, and she’s significantly stronger than many of the other post players she faces, but as far as verticality goes she doesn’t bring much.

That being said, she has been instrumental on the glass all season and particularly in their win over Grovetown.

She had six of her eight points in the fourth quarter, and though Warner Robins didn’t do well on the glass, they were much better with her on the floor.

Arguably the biggest reason the Lady Warriors were able to stay in the game after their 3-point shooting died down was because of their offensive rebounding.

The Demonettes started the second half without Fuller, and on two possessions in a row Grovetown pulled down two offensive rebounds and scored. White sent Fuller to the scorers table after that.

“A big body in the middle,” White said on what Fuller brings to the team. “I always say rebounding, it’s 90% heart and 10% skill. I tell them all the time I’m not very big, but I found a way to lead my team [in rebounds when I was playing]…tonight we got beat up on the boards. There were times that we grabbed the rebound I felt like we got fouled, [but] we gotta play through that.”

Increasing the intensity

The girls’ Warner Robins versus Grovetown game started similar to the boys’ the night before.

The Lady Warriors got the ball out to leaking players to get behind the defense and get up 3-point shots. In fact, that was the only thing keeping them in the game as the Demonettes took a 9-0 lead early.

Out of Grovetown’s 15 first-quarter points, 12 of them were from beyond the arc.

White could be heard from the sideline shouting, “Wake up!” to her team, who is not accustomed to playing at 10:30 a.m.

“I think [the Demonettes] were lackadaisical thinking [Grovetown] wasn’t gonna knock it down, but the intensity change was big for us,” White said of the change going into the last three quarters. “Waking up, first game in the morning of the season, 10:30 ball game, you think it’s crazy but when you haven’t been playing at 10:30 in the morning all season that’s a little different.”

Eventually Warner Robins wised up to the Lady Warriors game plan, and only allowed two more threes in the final three quarters.

UP NEXT

The next time the Demonettes play will be a region game at home against Ware County on Friday, Jan. 3 at 6 p.m.