Deerfield-Windsor girls to play for state championship again

MILLEDGEVILLE- The Deerfield-Windsor Lady Knights will try to repeat as GIAA state champions Friday at Columbus State University after beating John Milledge Academy 51-42 Wednesday in Milledgeville at Georgia College and State University.

The Lady Knights will play top-seeded Lakeview Academy (26-1) of Gainesville. Lakeview beat Terrell Academy 60-37 Wednesday in the other Final Four match-up,

Last year the Lady Knights beat Lakeview in the Final Four, 67-59.

“They have all of their girls back from last year and have added a couple of more,” said Deerfield-Windsor head coach Gina Mitchell – talking about Lakeview. “They are really strong with their top eight girls. They have two girls 6’3 or so plus some really quick and good-shooting guards.”

Yet the Lady Knights are not intimidated.

“We are going to work on our defense and get ready,” said Mitchell. “We are going to get a good game plan together and play our best game.”

Mitchell and the Lady Knights put together a winning game plan for Wednesday’s game against a tough John Milledge squad and came home with the victory.

“Our defense played really well,” the coach said. “And we did well rebounding on their end of the floor. Joi (Hubbard) put in a lot of points in the third and fourth quarters, Murphy (Ray) hit some big shots for us, and Gabby (Harris) only scored nine points but she passed off the ball really well to the open shooter and helped us get those points.”

Hubbard finished the game with 26 points and Ray put in 15.

The Lady Knights are now 24-5 overall this season and have now won 14 straight. Game time Friday at Columbus State is set for 6:20 p.m.