Lady Eagles overcome early deficit to beat Thomas County Central in first region game

WARNER ROBINS — Early three-pointers put Northside (10-3) in an early hole on Friday but the Lady Eagles climbed out and edged the Thomas County Central Lady Yellow Jackets (6-6) 46-42.

It wasn’t a quick start but Thomas County Central made timely triples throughout the first quarter to help them to a seven-point lead by the end of it. But the biggest contributing factor to that was their pressure on Taylor Johnson.

Lady Eagles’ head coach ChoRhonda Gwaltney-Harris has relied on Johnson as her offensive hub for the past two years, and it seemed that the Lady Jackets built their entire defensive game plan around that as many teams do.

They did their best to deny her the ball, especially in the post. If she did break free and was able to get possession the pressure was unrelenting. Multiple defenders converged on her and were always trying to poke the ball loose. But it wasn’t anything the Lady Eagles haven’t seen before.

“That’s what most people want to do if you watch us play,” Gwaltney-Harris said. “What we’re gonna do is we’re gonna just play…we’re gonna figure it out…She’s our leading scorer on the team and that’s our focal point. But the rest of us can get going too. We had some people make some big shots tonight.”

As the game went on Northside got more comfortable in their offense and got a couple of other players to chip away. They used the attention on Johnson to free up other players.

By halftime Northside completed a 9-2 run to trail 25-21, holding Thomas County Central to seven points in the second period.

The Lady Eagles’ defensive effort ramped up in the second half and all but completely shut down the Lady Jackets.

They contested every pass, every rebound and doubled ball handlers consistently. There was no easy action for Thomas County Central, and even though some fouls resulted from the aggressiveness, it was the reason they flipped the script in the final two quarters.

“Defensively is where our strong point [is]. Tonight, that’s what came out and that’s what won us the game is defense,” Gwaltney-Harris said.

But she did recognize their offensive shortcomings, too.

“We struggle scoring. We got to get better on the offensive end,” she said. “Running plays and being able to take care of the basketball. I mean that’s our downfall. If we ever get to the point where we can take care of the basketball, we’re going to make life trouble for a lot of people.”

Johnson swung the ball to Brynli Burch on the right wing for her second three-pointer to take Northside’s first lead since the opening period with 1:26 left in the third.

They didn’t run away with it from there, though. Turnovers snowballed a little going into the fourth and the fouls put Thomas County Central in the bonus for the remaining 3:13 of the game. After Jazmine Burgess’ corner three grew the Lady Eagles’ lead to 11, the Lady Jackets’ Nia Hayes hit one of her own with 49 seconds left to make it a two-point game.

Jazmyn Brown drilled both of her free throws in the final seconds of the game, sealing Northside’s first region victory and putting them one shy of their total from 2024-25.

UP NEXT

Northside will play Houston County down the road on Saturday, Jan. 3 at 3 p.m.

Thomas County Central will return home to play Coffee on Saturday, Jan. 3 at 3 p.m.