Kayla Sesberry scored 18 first-half points to help Douglass take control and then made two critical layups in the fourth quarter to stop a Southwest-Macon rally, leading the Astros to a 56-46 victory in the Class AA girls basketball championship game Thursday at the Macon Centreplex.
Third-ranked Douglass (26-5) earned its second consecutive state title and finished with an 18-game winning streak after starting the season 8-5 against a rugged schedule.
Southwest, ranked No. 5, ended the year 25-4 and came up short in its attempt to win its first title.
Sesberry finished with 25 points and added seven rebounds, four steals and two assists.
“She stepped up tremendously,” Douglass coach Alana Allen said. “She played outstanding on the offensive end and the defensive end. She got in a little bit of foul trouble, but when she got back into the game she made something happen. That was so important for us.”
After scoring seven points in the first quarter, Sesberry scored the Astros’ first 11 points of the second to turn a 13-12 deficit into a 23-17 lead. She picked up her second foul and went to the bench with three minutes remaining in the quarter, but the Astros were able to maintain the six-point lead heading to halftime.
Douglass took its biggest lead when a layup by Ashuntee Weems made it a 41-28 game with 31 seconds remaining in the third quarter.
Southwest, however, battled back into it. The Patriots outscored Douglass 16-5 over the next five minutes, cutting the lead to 46-44 with 3:47 remaining. Two layups by Stantagious Alford and two free throws by Jakera Hill provided the final six points of the run.
That’s when Sesberry cut the rally short. Her back-to-back layups off steals restored the lead to 50-44 with 2:19 to play, and Southwest scored just two points the rest of the way. Those were Sesberry’s first two field goals of the second-half.
“We knew they were gonna make a run,” Allen said. “The last game they played against Rockmart [a 54-52 victory], they made a run. We just needed to maintain our composure. That was the main thing. Take it minute by minute, and once we did that we were gonna be fine. That’s what ended up happening.”
With Sesberry cooled off in the second half, fellow all-Region 6 performers Ashuntee Weems and Ikenya King filled the void. King, the region player of the year, scored seven of her 13 points in the third quarter, and Weems had nine of her 10 points in the second half.
Douglass had 24 offensive rebounds and led 51-30 in total rebounds, an advantage that the Astros turned into 18 second-chance points. King, a 6-foot-3 center, finished with 16 rebounds, 11 of which came on the offensive end.
“That was important. We told them that if we can box out and rebound, they’re not going to beat us,” Allen said. “We knew that if we could control the boards we were going to be fine. It was so important for us to just give them one shot and get the rebound.”
Alford and Jakhyla Johnson led Southwest with 14 points each.
Southwest-Macon - 13-8-9-16 - 46
Douglass - 12-15-14-15 - 56
Southwest-Macon (46): Shygeria Williams 8, Jakhyla Johnson 14, Stantagious Alford 14, Jakera Hill 4, Avrie Grayer 6, Breanna Dean, Tamia Burney.
Douglass (56): Ashley McKee 2, Kayla Sesberry 25, Destiny McKee, Ashuntee Weems 10, Ikenya King 13, Yolanie Johnson2, Zhaniya Moreland, Michelle Payne 4.
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