Once Yasmine Allen found her stroke, the No. 2-ranked Forest Park Panthers were on their way back to the final four.
Forest Park (21-6) didn’t have a 3-pointer in the first half, but Allen made three of them in a big third quarter that propelled coach Steven Cole’s team to a 52-40 win over No. 8 Loganville in the third round of the Class 5A playoffs Wednesday.
Forest Park advanced to the Class 5A semifinals and will play New Manchester on Saturday at 2 p.m. at Fort Valley State University.
Allen wound up with 14 points, matching the number scored by teammate Jayda Brown, who did most of her damage attacking the basket.
“We did a few things different,” Cole said. “We started giving her some picks, and she started going all the way to the baseline and then popping out. And it was getting the defense behind her and it was a smaller defender, so she was going over the top of her.”
Loganville (21-8) was led by Sydney Bolden, the Region 8 Player of the Year, who scored 18 points. No one else scored more than six.
“We were just trying to pack the defense, and they have (Bolden) who can really drive,” Cole said. “We weren’t really threatened by the outside, and we kept it packed in on (Emaya Lewis). Our main objective was to stop all the other players from scoring because we knew (Bolden) was going to get hers.”
Forest Park, which trailed 21-20 early in the third quarter, outscored Loganville 20-7 and took a 40-29 lead. Allen scored 11 points that quarter, and Michayla Davis added another trey.
“The first half we were kind of off,” Cole said. “The second half we hit some shots and ran through more of our offense.”
The Red Devils never got closer than nine points the rest of the game. It was the second straight year Loganville reached the third round.
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