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Habersham Central's Brannon Gaines goes to the hole against Gainesville. ZACH TAYLOR/Special -
Habersham Central's Jazky Bantaum looks for an opening against Jackson County. ZACH TAYLOR/Special
Gainesville’s girls were not going to let Kyia Barrett beat them. Fortunately for Habersham Central, the rest of the Lady Raiders did.
Habersham’s girls rode a shutdown second-half defense and a balanced attack to a 49-32 win over the Lady Elephants to reach the Region 8-6A championship game.
The Lady Raiders will take on North Forsyth for the title at 7 p.m. Friday night.
Barrett did not have a basket in the first half and finished with just 6 points, 2 of which came on technical free throws when the game was well decided.
“It definitely got a little intense at the end of the game,” Barrett said. “But I think the girls handled it well knowing I was being double-teamed. Emyrie and Jazky were confident in themselves and I was confident in them that if I couldn’t get the ball, they would have it and we could spread it out.”
The Lady Red Elephants (22-4) fell to the third-place game and will not host a playoff game. Habersham (18-7), meanwhile, will play at home in the first round of the state playoffs no matter how Friday’s game goes.
Habersham held Gainesville without a basket for more than 12 minutes of the second half as the home team pulled away for good, unlike the last meeting that got interesting at the end.
“We were going back and forth depending on matchups, and we were playing man and zone all night long,” Lady Raiders coach Bill Bradley said. “Our kids knew what we were doing. When we were in man, we let 21 get to the rim a few times, and when she didn’t score, she still created some second chance points. But other than that, our defense was really strong.”
The Lady Raiders jumped out to a 10-3 lead after the first quarter as Jazky Bantaum hit two 3-pointers and Emyrie Combs (team-high 13 points) scored on a slick drive to pace a rough shooting period for both teams. The Lady Elephants clearly set their sights on Barrett from the jump.
“Kyia has scratches all over her arms,” Bradley said. “I can’t say enough about Jazky dribbling out of traps. If you are going to gamble, we can make you pay and that is something we did not do earlier in the season. They don’t mind as much if you score out of their trap as long as you play fast.”
Chitwood and Combs drained 3-pointers in the second quarter to keep the lead while Gainesville had its most effective period. The Lady Raiders held onto a six-point lead at the break despite Barrett being blanketed thanks to good ball movement.
“We’ve all worked well together since summer, and we’re like a family,” Barrett said. “Everything comes natural now.”
Barrett scored her only two baskets early in the third quarter as the Lady Raiders worked to build a margin. Gainesville got as close as four after a third second-chance basket, but Combs scored again on a drive, seemingly scoring whenever the Lady Raiders needed her to.
“I don’t ever look at her as a freshman,” Bradley said. “They’re all athletes to me and if you’re on the floor, I demand excellence. And she plays so hard, she’s just fun to sit and watch.”
Three connections from Bantaum to Gabby Santiago for baskets kept the Lady Elephants’ press at bay, and Combs hit a 3-pointer, then soon after went coast-to-coast for a left hand lay-in that brought the house down and sealed the game.
Chitwood finished with 10 points and a variety of collisions on dives for loose balls. Santiago and postmate Sataria Cantrell scored 6 points each, and Bantaum finished with 8.
Now it’s 32 minutes to a title for the Lady Raiders.
“I think we’ve got a chance,” Bradley said. “We did not attack them properly last time. It will be a different environment. We are excited.”
“This was our goal the whole season,” Barrett said. “I am excited to see what we bring tomorrow in a game between two good teams.”
Raiders fall to Lanier
The Habersham Central boys played a tough physical team in Lanier hard Thursday night, but ultimately fell short, 64-53, in the region semifinal.
The Longhorns - and foul trouble - held Raiders’ senior Bryce Pittman without a basket for three quarters and used their athleticism to take control of the game in the second quarter. Raider big man JoJo McCurry also ran into foul trouble early, as both he and Pittman finished with just 9 points each.
“We had to do a couple different things with our rotation because of the fouls, but it was a physical game,” Raiders coach Tommy Yancey said. “I thought the guys played extremely hard on defense. They got after it, but we didn’t make some shots and get some stops we needed to. We knew coming in we had to press them to beat them. The second quarter hurt us and put us in a bad spot. We had good energy, but we just couldn’t make enough shots. No complaint about the effort.”
Former Raider big man Osmar Garcia had 17 points for Lanier to complete a three-game sweep of his former team.
The Raiders play in the third-place game at 5:30 p.m. Friday and will travel for the first round of the state playoffs next week.