It's A 4-Peat For the Lady Indians As McEachern Beats 75-68 Norcross For GHSA 7A Championship

Saturday night, the first Georgia High School Association Class 7A Girls Championship would be decided as the Norcross Lady Blue Devils faced the McEachern Lady Indians. Norcross would go up on top early and would lead the entire first quarter going up by as many as eight. The Indians would close the Blue Devil lead at one point, cutting it down to three but Norcross would end the opening quarter up 22-15. In the second quarter the Blue Devils would find themselves up 27-22 with 4:50 to go in the first half but McEachern’s #30 Jewel Smalls (13 pts, 6 rbs) would make a two point basket and draw a foul, missing the free throw and Norcross would lead 27-24. Up 29-24, McEachern’s #10 Q Morrison (24 pts, 6 rbs) would draw a foul and make both free throws to cut the Norcross lead down to three as Norcross led 29-26.

Up 32-26 with 2:30 to go in the half, the Blue Devil’s #25 Vanessa Blagmon (23 pts, 5 rbs) would give the Norcross a 34-26 lead but the Indians Morrison would make a two point basket and draw a foul, completing the three point play make to it a 34-29 game with 1:52 to go in the first half. With :49 to go McEachern’s Morrison would draw another personal foul and make 2-2 to cut the Norcross lead and go into the locker room at the half trailing 38-37. In the second half, McEachern would score seconds into the third quarter to take the lead and go up 39-38 but Norcross would answer back with a two point put back basket by #34 Devyn Wilson to go up 40-39. The Indians would then go a 7-2 run to take a 45-40 lead with 5:58 to go in the third.

Up 45-42 the Indians would score 4 unanswered points to go up 49-42 with 4:22 as Norcross would call timeout to talk things over. As the quarter continued Norcross would tie the game at 53 but McEachern would knock down a three point basket to take a 56-53 lead with under a minute to go in the third and the Indians would go on to hold a 58-55 lead at the end of the third. McEachern would open up the fourth on a 6-0 run to make it a 64-55 game with 6:10 to go in the fourth. Norcross would then go on a 8-3 run to cut lead to make it 66-63 game with 4:15 to go.

As play continued, Norcross would trail 70-65 with :51 remaining but would miss a on a two point attempt which would lead to a McEachern rebound and the Indians #24 Victoria Agyin (13 pts) drawing a foul and making 2-2 to give the Indians a 72-65 lead. Norcross’ Blagmon would hit a three pointer to make it a 72-68 game with :27 remaining but that would not be enough nor would there be enough time for the Blue Devils as McEachern would get their fourth consecutive GHSA State Championship with the 75-68 win over Norcross.

Following the game, McEachern Head Coach, Phyllis Arthur had this to say about the Indians win, "I am so happy right now. I'm so proud of my girls. They never quit, they had faith when everybody thought we couldn't do it after we lost some players. We never quit believing. We believed we could do it!"