MACON, Ga. — In the Final Four of the Georgia Independent Athletic Association’s state tournament Wednesday, the Piedmont Academy Lady Cougars defeated Central Fellowship Christian Academy 53-35.
Now, the Lady Cougars are off to the state title game for the second year in a row.
Head coach Michael Wilson was pleased with his team’s performance.
“It was a great team win,” Wilson said. “We played really well on defense — we disrupted their ball handlers and kept them from getting into the lane. Our pressure frustrated them and over time we just wore them down and were able to sit the starters a majority of the fourth quarter.”
At halftime, Piedmont Academy led 36-15 and never looked back in the second half.
Marissa Holder led the team in scoring as she had for most of the season with 19 points. Kylee Keck contributed eight points as well as Teagan Satterfield and Jacie Jenkins scoring seven points apiece.
Jenkins was the leading rebounder with 10 and Holder nearly recorded a double-double collecting nine rebounds. Holder had a team-high eight assists followed by Satterfield’s three.
“Marissa was great,” Wilson said. “She scored all her points in the first half and would’ve finished with a triple double except we decided to sit her the whole fourth quarter.
Jacie did a great job rebounding and she and Kylee released and ran the court well.
“We had more depth and wanted to get them running on a bigger court and we were able to execute that.”
Now redemption is at the forefront of the Lady Cougars’ mind after losing in last year’s state title match. This year, they’ll face Citizens Christian Academy on Friday, March 3 at 4 p.m.
Wilson believes that his team has what it takes to leave Macon this go round with some hardware.
“[Our players] are fighters…they want this,” Wilson said “The girls have had a great year with a softball state championship and flag football runner up. I think they want to validate that they are the premier female athlete group in the GIAA and we have our chance, that’s all you can ask.”
