It was a good end to the regular season for the Lady Eagles of East Jackson, as they recorded two wins last week against Oglethorpe County and Banks County. They then went on to win their first post-season game Monday night against Oglethorpe.
The Lady Eagles’ post-season fate rested on a Tuesday match-up with Rabun County at North Oconee. The winner of the game would go on to face the winner between Union County and Jefferson at JHS on Friday at 7 p.m.
Results of Tuesday’s game were not available at press time.
Oglethorpe Co.
The Lady Eagles entered play last Tuesday against the Oglethorpe County Lady Patriots knowing they had a shot at coming away with a win. East Jackson had defeated Oglethorpe back on Jan. 20, and hoped for a repeat showing to help boost them in the upcoming post-season.
The Lady Eagles came out ready to play, and took an early lead, 16-2 by the end of the first quarter. They then held Oglethorpe to only eight points in the second quarter, while they added 15 points to their lead to carry a 31-8 advantage into the half.
It was more of the same in the third quarter, with the Lady Patriots being held to only six points as East Jackson ran their lead up to 54-14. The Lady Eagles added 11 more points to their total, while Oglethorpe could only muster five additional points, giving East Jackson the 65-19 victory.
Autumn Wilbanks led the team in scoring with 16 points, while Callie Moore scored 14, Bralee Griffin and Kaitlin Hill scored 10 and Abby Adams scored six.
Hill had a double double on the night, scoring 11 rebounds, while Wilbanks had six. The Lady Eagles had 16 total assists, with Terin Gillespie having seven of them. Gillespie and Moore led in steals with five each, while Griffin had four and Wilbanks had three. The team had a total of 21 steals on the night.
“I was glad we could have a good performance on senior night,” said coach Amy Larimer. “Autumn, Terin, Kaitlin and Paige have been contributors to the continual process of building the Lady Eagles program. All of them will be dearly missed.”
Banks County
The Lady Eagles hoped to ride the momentum from the Oglethorpe win into Homer on Friday for their regular season finale against the Lady Leopards of Banks County.
The Lady Leopards had won in the teams’ previous meeting back on Jan. 27, and the Lady Eagles wanted to make sure there was not a repeat of that result.
East Jackson took the early advantage, moving out to a 10-6 lead by the end of the first quarter. They stretched their advantage in the second quarter to eight points as they added 16 to their total, taking a 26-18 lead into the half.
Banks began to charge in the third quarter, closing the lead down to five by scoring 13 points, while the Lady Eagles picked up nine. East Jackson continued to hold the advantage with a 35-30 score at the end of the quarter.
The Lady Eagles stood their ground in the fourth quarter, adding 21 points to their total while holding the Lady Leopards to 16, giving East Jackson the 56-46 victory.
Shelby Johnson led in scoring against Banks County with 13 points, while Moore, Wilbanks and Caroline Hicks scored 11 each, and Hill scored seven.
Hicks had a double double on the night with 14 rebounds, while Mikki McGinnis had seven. Johnson and Moore had three assists each. Moore and Wilbanks had five steals each, while Johnson and Hill had two each.
“Both teams played a very hard fought, physical game for 32 minutes,” Larimer said. “I was glad to end the regular season with such a big win with such hard play from every player on the team.”
The win gave the Lady Eagles a 3-9-region record, and 8-17 overall to end the regular season.
Oglethorpe Again
The first game for the Lady Eagles in post-season play came Monday night at East Jackson, as they played host to Oglethorpe County.
East Jackson took control early on, holding the Lady Patriots scoreless while they built an 11-0 lead by the end of the first quarter. Oglethorpe tried to work their way back in the game, scoring 10 points in the second quarter, but East Jackson stayed firmly in control, adding 18 points to their score to lead 29-10 at the half.
The Lady Eagles stayed in the driver’s seat in the third quarter, holding the Lady Patriots to eight points, while East Jackson ran their lead up to 48-18 by the end of the third. Oglethorpe had their biggest gain in the fourth quarter, scoring 12 points, but couldn’t close the gap, as East Jackson went on to win 53-30.
Wilbanks led the Lady Eagles in scoring with 13 points. Hill and Hicks scored eight each, McGinnis scored seven and Adams scored six.
McGinnis had 10 rebounds, while Hill had seven and Hicks had six. Johnson had four assists. Moore had four steals, while Johnson and Hicks had three each.
