State Champs: Deerfield-Windsor beats Tiftarea for Girl’s State Championship

MACON — The Deerfield-Windsor Lady Knights went wire-to-wire this basketball season and claimed the GIAA Class AAA Girl’s basketball championship Friday night in Macon at Hawkins Arena on the campus of Mercer University. The Lady Knights were ranked number one by MaxPreps to begin the season and never lost that spot. The Lady Knights also never trailed Friday night and beat region rival Tiftarea Academy 61-34. It was the fourth time this season Deerfield-Windsor has defeated Tiftarea.

The championship in girl’s basketball is Deerfield-Windsor’s first since 2004. The Lady Knights lost in the state championship game four years ago when many of this team’s players were eighth graders and it was Head Coach Gina Mitchell’s first year at Deerfield-Windsor.

“There was no way we were going to lose that game,” said junior point guard Joi Hubbard. “I know it is hard to beat a good team four times in a year, but we remember that feeling after losing four years ago. We weren’t going to do that again.”

Senior Genevieve Lanier took the opening possession, raced around a defender into the lane, and laid up two points to give Deerfield-Windsor a 2-0 lead to start. Moments later, the Lady Knights were ahead 14-5 and Tiftarea called time to slow down the Lady Knights with 1:16 remaining in the quarter.

The Lady Panthers of Tiftarea played a fast, physical defense that created turnovers and scoring opportunities early on but the Lady Panthers had trouble putting the ball into the basket. Part of that might have been the Deerfield-Windsor student section, all dressed in white, who hounded the Tiftarea players with shouts of “Air Ball!, Air Ball!” each time the Lady Panthers were on their end of the floor. The Deerfield-Windsor students and fans were dressed in white to show support for the Lady Knights who wore white uniforms.

The Lady Knights led 30-13 at the half and 48-20 heading into the final quarter.

“No more points,” Mitchell told her team as they broke the huddle to begin the final period.

But Tiftarea hit three straight three-pointers early in the fourth quarter to bring the score to 48-29 and Mitchell called time out to talk to her team again. After that time out, the Lady Knights regained control and pushed the lead to almost 30 points toward the end of the game.

“They (Tiftarea) are a good team. They are fast. They play physical defense and they can shoot the ball,” Mitchell said after the game. “That is why I was worried heading into the last quarter. They were all over Gabby (Harris) and Murphy (Ray), “ said Mitchell. “I told Joi just take the ball to the basket.”

Hubbard did.

She scored 25 points in the game, 15 of those points in the second half. Three of those points came midway through the fourth and put a dagger in Tiftarea’s hopes of a big comeback. Not long after that three the teams began to send in the subs.

“We have the best seniors and the best coaches,” said Hubbard after the game. “It was really a great team win.”

“It was all Joi,” countered teammate Gabrielle Harris. “Joi played an amazing game. We are excited that we did it!”

Besides Hubbard’s 25 points, the Lady Knights got 13 from senior Margaret Saddler, 10 from Harris — six of which were from the free throw line, and nine from Lanier.

The Lady Knights finished the season with a 27-1 record, the only loss coming to Monroe during the Holiday Shoot-out. The Lady Knights will lose four seniors from the team — Sadler, Lanier, Caroline Tennyson, and Molly Shepard.