Sports
McEachern One Win from State Title
The Lady Indians defeated Mill Creek on Thursday to advance to the AAAAA championship.
Editor's note: Patch will be providing live updates from tonight's championship game between McEachern and Norcross via Twitter. Follow the game by clicking here.
The Lady Indians secured a spot Thursday in the AAAAA state championship by defeating Mill Creek in a matchup of two Cinderella teams.
The girls used strong second and third quarters to defeat the Lady Hawks 65-56.
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Both teams started slowly in the first quarter. Sloppy play on both sides forced McEachern head coach Phyllis Arthur to burn a time out as her team was down by four points early. Mill Creek kept several offensive possessions alive by out-hustling the taller Lady Indians.
To make matters worse, McEachern’s leading ball handler and playmaker, Dominique Wilson, committed her third foul with just under two minutes to go in the first quarter. McEachern was down by two points at the end of the quarter.
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Mill Creek came out in the second quarter reeling off an 8-0 run to extend its lead. McEachern would answer that run with a 15-0 run of its own to take the lead. Led by junior Patches Roberts, the Lady Indians took control of the game tempo and went to the half up 32-30.
Roberts scored 12 of her game-high 23 points in the second quarter.
Wilson returned to action in the second half with aggressive play and leadership that helped the Lady Indians extend their halftime lead. Defensively, McEachern held the Lady Hawks to only two points for a majority of the quarter.
After three, the lead had been pushed to 12 points, 51-39.
Wilson scored all seven of her points before injuring her leg on a drive to the basket. After hitting one of her free throws, the McEachern junior went to the bench and didn't return. It is unknown if Wilson will be available for the title game.
Mill Creek came out aggressive on defense in the fourth. That aggressive play, along with McEachern’s poor free-throw shooting, allowed the Lady Hawks to cut the lead to as few as seven points.
They weren't able to cut that deficit any smaller.
The Lady Indians, content to hold the ball and run out the clock, hit just enough free throws to keep Miller Creek at bay.
McEachern made it to Thursday's matchup . The Lady Indians will next play Norcross High School for the AAAAA state championship tonight at 7 at the Arena at Gwinnett Center. If you can't make it to Duluth for the game, you can watch it live on Georgia Public Broadcasting.
If you have pictures of any of the Lady Indians' games this season, send them to michael.stone@patch.com for a photo gallery.