By Shannon Fagan, WEIS Sports Director
SAND ROCK – The last time the Cherokee County Lady Warriors played Sand Rock on the basketball court, the Lady Wildcats punched them in the mouth early. They went on a 12-0 run and held on to win by point in overtime.
Senior point guard Ellisan Givens said that game back on Dec. 11 was an eye-opening experience.
“It was like a wake-up call for our team,” Givens said. “We all decided from that point on we were going to give it all we’ve got. When we played them the first time, they came out real strong against us. We knew we wanted to punch them in the mouth, so we got our energy up and decided we were going to give it our all.”
And give it their all they did on Thursday.
This time, it was Class 4A, No. 4 Cherokee County that punched the Class 2A, No. 3 Lady Wildcats in the mouth. The Lady Warriors went on a 16-0 first-quarter run and won their 11th straight game with a 44-25 victory.
Givens led the Lady Warriors (18-2) with 22 points, including three 3-pointers.
“We’re a team who loves to press, play fast, and get open looks up the court on fast breaks. Being able to come out and play fast like that, that really gets us in our groove,” Givens said.
“We knew Sand Rock is a really good rebounding team. They’re really good on the boards. They’re really aggressive, so we knew we had to turn it up if we wanted to beat them.”
Cherokee County coach Richard Barton was proud of how the Lady Warriors turned things up from their last meeting with Sand Rock (12-7).
“When you go down 12-0 like we did in that first one, we talked about how we can do the same thing,” Barton said. “We feel like we didn’t play our best (in the first game). We had some adversity and didn’t handle it well. They hit some shots and we didn’t. Our mindset tonight was to come out, get after them early, and not turn the ball over. That’s the big thing, valuing our possessions, looking for the right shots, and just being patient.”
That patience paid off and led to a 28-14 halftime edge and a 38-23 advantage after three quarters.
Nevaeh Gaidurgis and Marie Crane both scored six points for the Lady Warriors. Crane’s points came on a pair of 3-pointers.
Hadlie Weaver led Sand Rock with eight points. Maddie Clanton contributed six points and 13 rebounds. Kaylee Burns finished with five points and eight boards.
Both teams jump back into area play on Friday. Sand Rock hosts Gaston while Cherokee County travels to White Plains.
