Terrell County ousted in semifinals

VALDOSTA — Making it to a state championship game is just much about mental toughness as it is physical. A team must stay focused, composed and engaged as the competition gets better.

For the Terrell County girls basketball team, the Greenwave weren’t as locked in a head coach Tammye Jenkins-Ware would have liked. As a result, they fell to Marion County 45-40 in the semifinals of the GHSA Class 1A-Public Tournament Saturday evening at Valdosta State University.

The Greenwave came out strong and showed no sign of nerves as they took a 10-4 lead at the end of the first. Things fell apart for the Greenwave in the second, however, as the Eagles turned up the defensive intensity. Marion County got a hand on just about every Terrell County pass, forced steals and held the Greenwave to just three points.

“I feel like they wanted it more than we did. I felt like we played in spurts,” Jenkins-Ware said. “We lost focus (in the second quarter). We just weren’t disciplined.”

The Greenwave also fell behind in the foul count 9-4 in the first half, forcing Jenkins-Ware to go to her short bench much earlier than she would’ve liked and threw the Greenwave off mentally.

“It affected us, getting into foul trouble. It shifted our momentum, it shifted our train of thought,” she said. “But things we talked about in practice, boxing out, not standing around, just everything we talked about in practice and tried to mentally prepare for, (we didn’t do Saturday).”

Jamiya McDaniel tried to will her team to victory, scoring 15 of her team-high 23 points in the fourth quarter. Her two free throws made it a three-point ballgame with about a minute to play, but the Greenwave missed three of their final four shots as the Eagles held on.

“Our shots weren’t falling at the end, and I think we were tired,” Jenkins-Ware said. “I think fatigue played a part in our shots not falling. We could’ve done a better job of even attempting to get offensive rebounds. It was just one of those games where I don’t think they wanted it bad enough.”

Janiya Crowell was the lone double-digit scorer for Marion County. She finished with 12.

The Greenwave will enter next season in rebuilding mode as they graduate four of their five starters.