DALLAS, Ga. — In what was a premier matchup between the top two teams in Class AAAAAA, the Newton Lady Rams fell short as their season came to a close against North Paulding.
Following a pair of strong wins to begin the postseason, the Lady Rams took the trip to Dallas to take on the No. 1 ranked Lady Wolfpack. Despite a strong start, a stagnant second quarter set the foundation for Newton’s 47-58 loss in the Elite Eight.
Zoey Jackson continued her strong stretch of play in Tuesday’s matchup, but 35 combined points from the Hinkson sisters pushed North Paulding to Atlanta for the Final Four.
With a big matchup ahead of the Final Four, Newton head coach Jawan Bailey spoke on the significance of the game.
“To me, this was the state championship,” Bailey said. “These are the top two teams in our class and if you are not ready to play at a high level for four quarters then you won't come out on top. Same thing applied for them. I think they were more prepared and they wanted it more. Being in front of their home crowd and their gym gave them a boost.”
A few minutes into the game, it was clear that the Lady Rams were on a similar start to their Sweet 16 win over Buford.
Less than a week earlier, Newton erupted for 26 points in the first frame against the Lady Wolves. Jackson had the Lady Rams well on their way to another fast start as the senior accounted for eight of the team’s 18 first quarter points.
London Smith, who was still not 100 percent after an injury in the region tournament, entered midway through the first quarter once again and added an early three-ball as Newton built its lead.
North Paulding only scored 11 points in the opening frame and did half of it from the free throw line. Similar to the Sweet 16 matchup with Bufgord, the Lady Rams found themselves heavily outnumbered in free throw attempts by the end of the game.
Newton went on to lead 18-11 at the end of the first quarter, but the wheels began to fall off in the eight minutes that led up to halftime.
North Paulding did not shoot the ball particularly well to start the game, but the Lady Wolfpack shooters soon got hot.
Kenzie Hinkson hit a trio of three-pointers in the second frame to accompany another from Ava Dyer as the Lady Wolfpack mounted a game-changing run ahead of halftime.
Outside of a jumper from Smith, Newton was unable to convert anything else from the floor in the second frame. In a span of eight minutes, North Paulding put together a 20-3 run to take a 31-21 lead at the break as the Wolfpack faithful let everyone know.
“I honestly think it had a lot to do with the crowd. They hit a lot of big shots and the gym got very loud,” Bailey said. “For us, it was the first time we have played in that environment this season. We haven't had a game that crowded, that loud in a gym this small. You can kind of see our kids wide-eyed a little bit. We just started getting away from the game plan and it was just a rolling snowball.”
Newton found ways to get points on the board in the third frame with the help of Jackson and Shepard, but North Paulding matched it.
Kalee Hinkson played a quiet first half, but the Lady Wolfpack junior started to find success in the second.
Along with points from Morgan Landrum, Kalee totaled seven of North Paulding's 15 third quarter points.
The Lady Wolfpack led 46-33 ahead of the final frame and fought off multiple Newton runs to keep their lead and advance.
Sklyar Levell and Jazmin Maddox immediately cut the lead down for Newton at the start of the quarter, but almost all of Newton’s scoring was matched by the hosts.
Following a late jump shot from Amiyah Leacock that sent the Wolfpack student section into a frenzy, the No. 1 ranked team in the state took home a 58-47 win to move on.
In what were their final high school games, Jackson and Shepard led Newton in scoring with 14 and 11 points, respectively. Smith totaled nine points off the bench.
The Lady Wolfpack scoring was highlighted by Kenzie, who led all players with 19 points in the victory. Kalee and Landrum finished with 16 and 11 points, respectively.
Although the season ended two games shy of the team’s ultimate goal, the Lady Rams posted another high-win season in Bailey's fourth year at the helm.
Newton finished the season 23-6 and held a perfect 8-0 record on 1 Ram Way.
The end of Newton’ season also marked the end of the line for 10 Lady Rams seniors — a feat that Bailey did not want to overlook.
“I just told them, ‘I don't think another team in Georgia has 10 seniors,’” Bailey said. “We have 10 seniors on this team and I made it a point to make it work with the amount of kids we have just because they were on the 3-22 team and things like that. I wanted to be loyal to them and I am just super proud of them as a collective. [They] found ways to lead this group and found ways to keep everyone pushing day in and day out.”
Jackson, Shepard, Natalyah Lane, Kaitlin Goodman, Ja’kaia White, Joie Files, Dinah Stephens, Jaylnn Flores, Zoei Whitehead and Azariah Washington all played in their final games on Tuesday.
“Shoutout to Kaitlin Goodman, who has been a leader for us all season. She did an amazing job,” Bailey said. “[There’s] Zoey Jackson, who has turned it on in the last part of the season and has been playing her heart out knowing that her time is winding down. Just all of our kids, I am super proud of them.”
While the team will endure significant roster turnover, a majority of the team’s core will remain as they look ahead to 2026-27.
Players such as Smith, Levell, Maddox, Mya Perry, Jamira Flournoy and Kennedi Carter are projected to return.
