COVINGTON, Ga. – One down, four to go in the quest for ring No. 2.

The Newton Lady Rams moved one step closer to a second consecutive state championship on Tuesday night, defeating the Norcross Lady Blue Devils 61-42 in the first round of the 6A state tournament.

Tuesday’s victory comes four days after Newton lost to Archer in the Region 4-AAAAAA tournament. That loss, however, didn’t deter the Lady Rams at all.

After a deadlocked 5-5 start, the Lady Rams took control of the game. Junior Zoey Jackson and senior Kandice Shepard led Newton on a 11-0 run to give the Lady Rams a 16-5 lead to end the first eight-minute period.

The first quarter also marked the return of star junior London Smith, who missed the region championship game due to an ankle injury. But she played limited minutes, as she works her way back up to speed for the final rounds of the tournament.

“Her teammates really had her back and performed well,” said head coach Jawan Bailey.

Newton wasted no time continuing their offensive onslaught against Norcross, with a quick three by Jazmin Maddox to start the quarter. The sophomore added seven points and gave the Lady Rams an extra spark.

Jackson also continued her solid performance, too, reaching the double-digit mark.

Defensively, the Lady Rams had some issues defending from beyond the arc, with Norcross scoring all but one of its field goals through three-point shots.

“It’s something that we’re continuously working on,” Bailey said. “We do a lot of switching in our man-to-man defense, so sometimes it causes some lapses. We just gotta be more disciplined.”

The defensive liabilities didn’t seem to halter Newton too much, as the Lady Rams enjoyed a 33-16 lead going into the intermission.

After the half, Maddox and Shepard joined Jackson in double-digit scoring to lift the Lady Rams up by as much as 18 points. 

But Norcross didn’t go away easily. A 16-12 quarter, complete with a 5-0 run gave the Lady Blue Devils a glimmer of hope with eight minutes left in the contest.

Newton got back on track in the fourth quarter with a three-point shot by Jamira Flournoy and continued offensive outings by Maddox and Shepard. By the time Jackson nailed her last shot, the Lady Rams were up by 23 points.

With the game out of reach, senior Kaitlin Goodman provided the cherry on top with the final three pointer of the game to give the Lady Rams the victory.

Shepard and Jackson finished the game with 15 points each, leading all scorers.

“We had to stay locked in, be humble, be ready for the competition and play hard,” Shepard said following the game.

Maddox added 10 points, while senior Mya Perry finished with eight points.

After getting through the first round of the tournament, the Lady Rams find themselves in a familiar position. For the second year in a row, they will travel to Buford; this time for a second-round matchup at 6 p.m. on Friday.

Last season, the underdog Lady Rams knocked off the 25-win Buford team to claim a spot in the Final Four for the first time since 2017-18. The win was often considered as Newton’s inflection point in reaching, and eventually winning, the state championship.

This year, Buford is even stronger, sitting at a 27-1 record. But like last year, Bailey says his team is up for the challenge.

“I think we’ve already forgotten about it,” said head coach Jawan Bailey. “We were a two seed last year that had to go through a pretty tough gauntlet to get to the state championship game. So we all feel like this is somewhere we’ve been before. This is something we’re used to.

We know we can be a very dangerous team if we’re all locked in and ready to play. So that’s what we’re trying to be."