After coming so close to winning the Region 2-AAAAAA championship, the No. 2 seed Newton Lady Rams hosted the Lady Packers of Colquitt in the first round of the state tournament on Wednesday evening. Newton definitely did not come out with the same energy they had in the region championship, but they did have late push to be in the position to with the game. Ultimately, Newton came up short and was defeated 46-42.

It couldn’t have been a poorer start for the Lady Rams as they came out of the game ice cold. It wasn’t that they weren’t getting good shots. The ball wasn’t going into the hoop which led to Newton only scoring 13 points in the first half. But, it was their defense that hurt Newton. Colquitt constantly penetrated the ball into the paint to create good shots therefore they took a 21-13 lead into halftime.

Newton did come out with some energy to start the third quarter, but they still couldn’t get enough stops on the defensive end. Colquitt kept the lead into the fourth quarter and seemed to seal the deal when they took a 42-29 lead mid-way through the fourth quarter, but Newton made a late run lead by eight points from Alexcia Chatman. The lead was cut to just two with under a minute to go, but the Lady Rams just couldn’t pull it out.

Alcovy

Coming off a thrilling win 44-42 win in the third place game of the Region 2-AAAAAA tournament, that saw Alcovy's Arlana Barnes hit a game-winning three at the buzzer Alcovy had a lot of momentum going into its matchup against Valdosta on Wednesday. 

However, their momentum was shut down by Valdosta. The Lady Tigers got off to a slow start and were down 16-3 after the first period and the Lady Wildcats would lead 32-21 at halftime. 

Alcovy made its big push in the second half. The Lady Tigers outscored Valdosta 14-8 in the third quarter to cut the lead to five. The closest Alcovy would get, however, was within three points, but Valdosta ran off to a 52-43 victory and ended the Lady Tigers season.