NORTH AUGUSTA 52, WILSON 34
COLUMBIA — It became evident early on that North Augusta’s girls’ basketball team was going to need a spark from somewhere other than the usual suspects in Saturday night’s Class AAAA state championship game against Wilson if they wanted to repeat.
They got the usual double-double from Amari Young, and Sarah Crews and Aaliyah Bell were playing scrappy defense as always. The problem was Bell and Crews got into foul trouble early.

The freshman helped the Yellow Jackets weather the storm with a few of its stars on the bench, and North Augusta pulled away late for a 52-34 victory to repeat as Class AAAA state champions.

“A win is a win. It feels a little better than last year, having to fight it out and knowing we could fight it out through adversity,” North Augusta head coach Crystal Cummings said. “We had some key young players, a ninth- and tenth-grader step up and give us good key minutes. It just says a lot about the program and what we have to look forward to in the future.”

That freshman was Lee, who came into the championship game averaging 6½ minutes a game. She tripled that on the biggest stage Saturday night. She admitted she was a little nervous early, but at the same time she avoided making mistakes. She finished with six points, four rebounds, two assists and no turnovers in 18 minutes of play.

Four of her points came during a crucial stretch in the second half as North Augusta began to pull away. J’Mani Ingram was the other key young contributor. She scored five points and grabbed four rebounds. After Wilson closed the gap to just four points at halftime, North August outscored the Lady Tigers 30-16 over the final two quarters.

“At first, being a freshman, I was being shy,” Lee said. “I didn’t want to shoot. I didn’t want to do anything, but my teammates willed me on, and in the second half we took over.”

Young scored 13 points and grabbed 17 rebounds to lead the way in both categories. She also finished with four steals. Despite the foul trouble, Crews made three 3-pointers and scored nine points. Bell finished with eight.

Every North Augusta player who touched the court scored.

“In the previous playoff games my shot wasn’t falling and that was kind of tough, you know this is my senior year I wanted to make those shots,” Crews said. “When I saw that first 3 go down, I said ‘Oh yeah. It’s on.’ That felt really good for this being may last high school game.”

Crews along with fellow seniors Young and Valada Lewis capped their careers as Yellow Jackets with one more state title. The three have been a part of the program’s 78-5 record over the past three years. During that span North Augusta won two titles and made an appearance in the Lower State title game.

“The past two years we had been praying for this,” Crews said. “My sophomore year we lost in the semifinals, and ever since that loss in the semifinals we said the next two years we were going to get this championship. We did it one year and we knew we could do it again.”

Location

Columbia, Sc