Wesleyan girls win; keep region basketball title hopes alive

When Wesleyan’s junior point guard Chit-Chat Wright walked up to the free throw line with just 37.8 seconds left in a game that felt a little too close for comfort for nearly everyone else donning the green and gold, she did so with the same cool, unshakable demenor for which she’s become known.

“I just look at her and I feel calm,” Wesleyan head coach Carolyn Blackman said. “And I’ve felt that way since she was a freshman. Thank God she’s on my team.”

Wright then buried both free throws, followed by two more in the next moments as the Wolves drained the remaining time to gut out a tough, 58-46, win over Pickens County that could prove crucial in terms of seeding for next week’s Region 7AAA tournament.

With the win, Wesleyan now control its own destiny heading into Friday’s regular season finale against Dawson County. A win against the Tigers would clinch at least the No. 2 seed in the region tournament, allowing Wesleyan to host the first round of games. It also has a chance of claiming a share of the regular season region championship with Lumpkin County if the Indians were to lose Friday against White County. A tiebreak situation could give the Wolves a first round bye in the region tournament and an automatic berth to the state tournament, if Wesleyan can get the help they need to join Lumpkin in first place.

However Tuesday’s win didn’t come easy.

After traveling the long trek to Jasper, the Wolves were met by a mostly packed arena wearing a different shade of green. Blackman said she felt the atmosphere had an impact on the game and her team.

“That was a great basketball environment,” she said. “The fans are passionate about their students playing and I knew it was going to be very lively and rowdy. I thought it affected us. I thought we were a little rattled but we were able to pull out the win.”

That seemed to be especially in play early as both teams started out slow shooting from the field, with Pickens taking the early advantage with a 6-4 lead.

The Wolves quickly responded with a 7-0 that saw them tie and then retake the lead which they’d hold for the remainder of the game. Although never trailing after 6-4, Wesleyan was unable to put away the Dragonettes, who responded to each scoring burst with one of their own.

Blackman was quick to give credit to Pickens, saying she felt her team was outplayed the whole night.

“I thought Pickens County completely outplayed us so we’re going to learn from that game and get better from it hopefully,” she said.

However despite feeling outplayed, the coach isn’t taking the win negatively as she feels learning to grind out close games will likely become a very valuable skill as the season inches closer to tournament time.

“Games like that are very important for us to figure out how to win,” Blackman said. “If we’re not getting shots and not hitting shots, we’re not playing our best basketball, figuring out a way to win in those situations is really important. You’re not always going to play your best game, so how are you going to win those games? I felt like that was encouraging for us. Our juniors and senior did a really good job of that.”

Never getting too shaken by the pressure, Wright managed to get the game back under control after each big run from the Pickens offense. The point guard seemed to always have an answer, either scoring herself or dishing to an open teammate to stop the momentum from shifting too far in the Dragonettes favor at any point in the game. By halftime, Wesleyan managed to stretch its lead to 13 points at 33-20.

After a quick bucket added to that lead, Pickens once again responded, not allowing Wesleyan to score an unanswered point the entire second half until the final minute of the game. Blackman said she’d nearly ran out of ideas on how to stall the Dragonettes’ offense.

“I was trying to figure out a way to disrupt the Pickens offense,” she said. “They were really solid. They did really good job and everything we threw at them, they kind of had an answer for so kudos to them.”

Wesleyan entered the fourth quarter with a 10-point lead at 46-36. As the defensive pressure from both sides ramped up, the scoring pace slowed to a crawl. At 48-41, the two teams were locked scoreless for over two minutes with both defenses answering the other’s huge stops.

However that came to an end as sophomore Londyn Walker stepped up right when the Wolves needed her to with a strong drive to the basket, sinking a contested shot in the paint and drawing the foul. Walker sank the free throw to convert the three-point play to stretch the lead back to 10. After Pickens answered with a three of its own, Walker came right back, threatening another drive before pulling up from midrange with the extra space needed to knock down a second-straight clutch basket and silenced the once rowdy crowd.

“Londyn did a great job, she’s extremely difficult to guard,” Blackman said. “She can get to the basket, shoot midrange, three pointer, so her hitting those clutch shots was huge for us.”
Walker finished the game with nine points.

From there, Pickens began to run out of time. Forced to foul, they eventually sent Wright to the line, where she disappointed the Pickens County faithful in attendance. Wright hit four free throws in the final minute to put her at 15 points for the game, tied with Johanna Potter for team-high, to go along with six assists.

Potter’s dominance in the paint on both sides rewarded her a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds. Eva Garabadian contributed 12 points including some clutch three pointers.
With Wright and the rest of her team icing out the rest of the game at the free throw line, the Wolves were able to escape Jasper with a 12-point win.

Having survived, Blackman hopes to see her team get back to the higher level of play that she knows it’s capable of heading into one last regular season game. The coach said she feels her squad still hasn’t reached its full potential.

“Right now I’m not really happy because we are not consistent,” she said. “So I’m trying to figure out a way for us to play really hard consistently and play together consistently. It’s good in that we’ve not peaked yet. I think that’s a positive for us.”