Basketball: Lady Bulldoggs hold off Gainesville, claim first region ...

Trailing Gainesville by two points entering the fourth quarter of Saturday night’s GHSA Region 8-AAAAAA championship game at Apalachee High School, the Winder-Barrow Lady Bulldoggs needed a jolt.
Lexi Maddox and Latrice Perkins, who had been held in check by Gainesville throughout the night, provided it.
The duo combined for 15 points in the final eight minutes as Winder-Barrow dominated the fourth quarter en route to a 55-47 victory and its first region championship since the 1961-62 season.
The Lady Bulldoggs (22-5) will host Sequoyah, the fourth seed from Region 6, Friday in the first round of the state playoffs.
“Our girls played through adversity,” sixth-year Winder-Barrow coach Brandon Thomas said after the win. “It was individuals doing great things together as a team and what else can I say? I’m just really proud of them.”
The region title marks the latest step in the turnaround of a program that had not reached the playoffs in 22 years before its run all the way to the Class AAAAA championship game last season.
And it didn’t come easy. One night after having to hold off a furious late rally by Habersham Central in the region semifinals, 53-49, the Lady Doggs had to knock off a talented and determined Gainesville squad for the third time on the year — this time without its best player, nationally top-ranked junior center Olivia Nelson-Ododa.
But help came from plenty of other faces.
Antoria Johnson, who was thrust into the starting lineup following Nelson-Ododa’s knee injury in the final week of the regular season, drilled a 3-pointer with 4:08 to play to put Winder-Barrow up for good, 42-41, and cap an 11-point night.
Then there was Shonteria Harris grabbing a rebound off a missed free throw by Perkins that would have completed a three-point play and dishing it to Maddox, who laid it in off the glass to extend the lead to 46-41.
There were also a team-high 16 points scored by sharp-shooting guard Chellia Watson, whose buzzer-beating three from half-court to end the first half put Winder-Barrow up 26-25 and lifted the Lady Doggs out of a lull.
“It was a team effort. People just made plays all over the place,” Thomas said. “It’s taken a while to figure out how to score points without our main threat inside and everyone has had to step up and they’ve done that.”
When Maddox, who finished with 10 points to go along with Perkins’ 10, sank a pair of free throws to make it 55-47 with 20 seconds left, it was over. And the roar from a raucous Winder-Barrow crowd that had been steady all night grew deafening.
The normally calm and collected Thomas could barely contain his excitement as he trotted down his bench and sent his remaining subs into the game.
“I wanted everybody to touch the floor,” he said. “It’s a region championship game and we haven’t gotten one of these in a long, long time.”
As the jubilant Lady Doggs rushed to the middle of the court to collect their region championship trophy and posed for a flurry of photos before retreating to the locker room, one could feel the magic from last season creeping back in.
Now it’s on to unfinished business for Winder-Barrow.
“We’re ready for the challenge,” Thomas said. “One play at a time, one game at a time.”