St. Francis will get a chance to defend its state title.
The girls won their 17th straight game and secured a spot in the Class A Private championship game with a 62-38 win over Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy on Saturday at Kennesaw State.
St. Francis will meet the winner of the Greenforest vs. Eagle’s Landing Christian game for the title. The championship game will be at 11 a.m. on March 5 at the Macon Coliseum.
“It’s a big deal … it’s very hard to go back-to-back,” St. Francis coach Aisha Kennedy said. “Now we’ve got to take it one quarter at a time and play our game.”
St. Francis (30-1) was led by junior point guard Taja Cummings, who attacked the basket all game and came away with 25 points.
“Our point guard really stepped up and played well,” coach Aisha Kennedy said. “We’ve having a lot of conversations about she can do and I think she’s buying in.”
The Knights also got 14 points each from forward Jala Jordan and 10 points from guard Maya Dodson.
Southwest Atlanta Christian (17-12) was led by Chyna Cotton with 15 points and point guard Tiamya Butler with 13. The Warriors, who only have six players on the roster, were forced to play with four players after Butler and center Dominique Banks fouled out.
St. Francis led 12-9 after one quarter and began to run away in the second, starting with a 3-pointer from Kori McDaniels on the first possession. Taja Cummings had 11 points at halftime, including a 3-pointer, and the Knights outscored SACA 13-3 to take a 25-12 halftime lead.
The Knights stretched the lead to 41-22 after three periods and Southwest was unable to substantially close the margin.
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