Wheeler County overcame an 11-point third-quarter deficit and turned back a late rally by Central-Talbotton for a 55-50 victory in the Class A public-school girls basketball championship game Wednesday at the Macon Centreplex.
The state title is the first in school history for second-ranked Wheeler County (31-1), which had runner-up finishes in 1960 (Class C) and 1978 (Class B). No. 1-ranked Central (27-2) was seeking its first championship since winning three consecutive Class A titles from 1984 to 1986.
“This group of girls has worked so hard,” Wheeler County coach Angelia Wright said. “They won. We asked and we received. They’ve worked on Sundays, Mondays, all throughout the week, throughout the summer, and it’s finally paid off. It’s really great. They deserve it.”
Central led 24-22 at halftime and scored the first nine points of the second half to take the biggest lead of the game by either team, 33-22 on a layup by Ty’Shemia Bunkley with 4:24 remaining in the third quarter. The Hawks still led 33-25 a little more than a minute later when Bernyla Sparks picked up her fourth foul and headed to the bench with her 18 points and 10 rebounds.
With Sparks on the bench, Wheeler County outscored Central 10-3 to close out the quarter, getting five points each from Samerria Bryant and Keonya Mincey, cutting the deficit to 36-35.
“That’s the heart of our team,” Wright said of her team’s comeback. “We try hard, we go hard. Initially I thought the game was too slow for us anyway. We needed to speed it up. We were able to increase the pace of the game, and we were able to come out on top.”
Sparks got four quick points in the first minute and a half of the fourth quarter to tie the game 40-40, but Bryant and Mincey had gotten their spark. They combined for 14 of the Bulldogs’ 20 points in the fourth quarter.
Wheeler County built the lead to 50-44 with 1:58 to play, but Central cut it to 51-50 with 48 seconds left. Mincey made two free throws for a three-point lead with 15.1 seconds remaining, and Le’La Wright made two more free throws five seconds later to put the game away.
Mincey led Wheeler County with 23 points and was 7-for-10 from the free-throw line, including 5-for-6 in the final two minutes.
“She’s really good at the stop-and-pop and driving to the hole,” Wright said of Mincey. “She was able to do that, and she came through for us.”
Bryant finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds.
Sparks had a game-high 24 points and 13 rebounds for Central, which also got 10 points and 12 rebounds from Shakemia Marshall.
Central-Talbotton - 8-16-12-14 - 50
Wheeler County - 10-12-13-20 - 55
Central-Talbotton (50): Noddia Horton 3, Bernyla Sparks 24, Renijua Johnson 6, Ty'Shemia Bunkley 7, Shakemia Marshall 10, Alayia Sparks, Ariel Durham.
Wheeler County (55): Samerria Bryant 16, Le'La Wright 6, Jayla Bryant, Terriyunna Cummings 4, Keonya Mincey 23, Chelsea Chapman, Keielyah Harris 6.
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