MACON - Holy Innocents’ jumped out to a 19-5 lead in the first quarter and held top-ranked Hebron Christian to a season low in points in a 57-39 victory in the Class 3A-A private girls basketball championship game Wednesday afternoon at the Macon Coliseum.
No. 3 Holy Innocents’ (25-5) finished the season on a 12-game winning streak and earned the fifth state title in program history and its first since 2020. The Golden Bears have reached at least the semifinals 12 times in the past 13 seasons.
Hebron Christian was seeking its third consecutive state title and fourth in five seasons. The Lions (29-2) had won 19 straight games since their only regular-season loss, 55-52 against Class 5A finalist Hughes on Dec. 20.
Hailee Swain, a Stanford signee who is the state’s highest-rated senior and a McDonald’s All-American, led the way for the Golden Bears with 30 points, 10 rebounds and two assists. She scored eight straight points in the final two and a half minutes, giving her team a 53-39 lead after Hebron Christian had gotten within seven points.
“It feels amazing,” Swain said. “I’ve been trying to accomplish this with my girls since I was a freshman, and I’m just really happy that we came in here and got the job done. We stuck together the whole game through the ups and downs and are finally state champions.”
Hebron Christian came into the game averaging 75 points per game but was held to just over half of that by a Holy Innocents’ defense that limited the Lions to 30.4% shooting from the field and 0-for-19 from 3-point range.
“Almost the entire year we’ve been running a man [defense], but we’ve been practicing our 1-3-1, a little bit of 1-2-2 and a lot of 2-3 zone,” Holy Innocents’ coach Nichole Dixon said. “We knew that if we were facing these guys, everything went to a high-low … so we tried to front the post, back the post and then run them off the line and crash the boards.”
The Lions didn’t make their first field goal until Danielle Osho scored in the lane with three minutes remaining in the first quarter to cut the lead to 9-3. Holy Innocents’ closed the quarter on a 10-2 run, including a 3-pointer by Swain at the buzzer that made it a 19-5 game.
Hebron Christian cut the lead to 11 points by halftime and nine points at the end of the third quarter but never got closer than six points the rest of the way.
Hebron Christian’s previous scoring low came in a 46-42 victory over Thomson on Dec. 13.
Osho led Hebron Christian with 16 points and had eight rebounds. Mia James scored 16 points, and Kerra Butler had seven points and nine rebounds.
Loriel Murray had six points and seven rebounds for Holy Innocents’. Aaniyah Branch scored six points and grabbed six rebounds.
Holy Innocents’ - 19-6-13-19 - 57
Hebron Christian - 5-9-15-10 - 39
Holy Innocents’ (57): Hailee Swain 30, Elana McMasters, Makayla Weaver 7, Nahkai Worthy 5, Loriel Murray 6, Peyton Gluesing 3, Mackenzie Weaver, Lauren Helmer, Aaniyah Branch 6.
Hebron Christian (39): Camryn Register, Kerra Butler 7, Mia James 12, Alanna Beckham 4, Danielle Osho 16, Alyssa Craig, Taryn Dixon.
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