The Southwest DeKalb girls basketball team kept its defense of the Class 4A state title alive thanks to an aggressive attack aimed at Bainbridge center Alexis Burke and 24 points from Kayla Lewis. The Lady Panthers dispatched the Lady Bearcats 80-48 at the Arena at Gwinnett Center on Wednesday to move on to the state championship game. “I was really proud of the kids,” Lady Panther head coach Kathy Walton said. “We wanted to pressure them and we wanted to stop Burke and we were able to do that.
The 5-11 Burke spent a good deal of her time on the bench in the first half thanks to foul trouble, sitting out the final 1:44 of the first quarter with two fouls before picking up her third foul later in the second period. “We had decided to go inside early and make her play defense,” Walton said.
Chyna Miley was active on the inside, along with her Lady Panther teammates, taking the ball at Burke and battling her on the defense end. A pair of Miley free throws after Burke left with her second foul put Southwest DeKalb up 17-9, as the Lady Panthers were in the midst of scoring the last nine points of the first quarter to take a 24-9 lead at the end of the period.
Lewis had the hot hand for the Southwest DeKalb, scoring 13 points in the first quarter. The Lady Panthers’ lead grew to 43-27 at halftime and they cruised from there as Bainbridge was unable to do the little things it took to win, including controlling turnovers. “We didn’t do well at the free throw line and we turned the ball over too many times,” said Lady Bearcat head coach Latreisha Moon. “I was really proud of the girls overall for the season, but I was not happy from the way we played [today] because we could have played a lot better.”
Kia Dawson led Bainbridge with 19 points and Burke finished with 14. Alondra Rivers joined Lewis in double figures for the Lady Panthers, finishing with 13.
Southwest DeKalb is back in the 4A championship game after defeating Fayette County for the trophy a year ago. The Lady Tigers are coincidentally the team they will meet in the championship game this year as well. It was after last year’s title game that Lewis said the team set the goal of getting back to the final game. Walton marvels at what the Lady Panthers have overcome in achieving that goal. “We lost some key players so we knew we had to define some new roles and get some new people to step up, but they wanted that challenge,” she said. “We lost a couple of games, but they regrouped, we got better, we got stronger. This is where they want to be.”
Southwest DeKalb takes on Fayette County on Friday at 3 p.m.
Butler can be reached at jbutler@scoreatl.com.
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