Lumpkin County girls lock down another Region 7-AAA basketball crown

For the third straight season, the Lumpkin County Girls Basketball team claimed the Region 7-AAA Regular Season Championship with a dominant win over rival and fellow Top 10 talent White County, 71-55.

While the Indians had technically clinched the No. 1 seed in the upcoming Region Tournament through tiebreakers regardless of Friday night’s result, with the win Lumpkin finished the regular season with the best record in the region outright at 11-1.

However, despite the accomplishment, head coach David Dowse feels there’s still way too much to be accomplished to celebrate anything yet.

“I recognize that we’ve done the last three years is something that hasn’t been done around here in a long time, it’s just hard to celebrate it right now because you know there’s just so much more you want to do,” Dowse said. “I’m really proud of them. The overall record that this senior class has put on paper when it’s all done will be pretty impressive. That’s a whole lot of wins.”

With both teams ranked inside the Top Five in Georgia’s AAA Classification, it was well known by Dowse that this wouldn’t be an easy game.

“Jarvis [Davenport] and I have become really good friend over the years and our teams have such a mutual respect for each other,” Dowse said of White County’s head coach. “It’s funny because we play such a different style of basketball. Our kids compete hard, but they respect each other which makes it a really nice rivalry. And they’re really good, a very good team.”

The first quarter played out just as one would expect, setting up another classic battle between the neighboring county rivals, with Lumpkin edging just ahead by a Mary Mullinax bucket in the final seconds to claim a 20-18 lead after one. Mullinax was the difference early as the senior and reigning Region Player of the Year started her Senior Night strong with 11 first-quarter points en route to a 27-point game.

Entering the second quarter, a switch flipped for Lumpkin. The Indians gave up the first two points of the quarter before going on a 22-3 run to end the half, behind lights out shooting from seniors Mullinax and Lexi Pierce. The duo combined for 14 points in the quarter, completely taking the game out of contention early as Lumpkin ended the half with a 19-point lead at 42-23.

From there, Lumpkin’s seniors continued to pile it on, coming up just short of earning a mercy-rule shortened fourth quarter by taking a 24-point lead into the fourth.

However, a scorching hot start to begin the fourth quarter gave White County life as the Warriors continued what turned out to be an 18-0 run from their last basket in the third quarter, narrowing the lead to eight at 60-52.

But White County’s stretch of hot shooting ran out just before the finish line as Lumpkin senior Kate Jackson ended the miracle stretch with back-to-back buckets including a drive to the post that saw the Indians’ center hit her shot and draw the foul, which sucked the last remaining bits of momentum out of the Warriors. Jackson quietly scored 18 points in the game, dominating in the post and beyond the arc with three three-pointers.

After giving up the 18-0 run to make things close, Lumpkin ended the game on an 11-3 run to send its seniors out in style with one final regular season home victory.

For Dowse, it was an emotional night as the school honored the team’s five seniors, a core group that brought Lumpkin its first ever State Championship in basketball.

“It’s tough, you’re around a group so much for four years, it’s tough to see it coming to an end,” Dowse said. “We’ll see if we can’t extend it a little longer.”

With the regular season region championship also comes a first round bye in the region tournament and an automatic berth into the state tournament, confirming that Dowse’s run with his team will extend at least into the first round of state. However, the team’s ambitions are for a much deeper run that the coach feels his team is ready for.

“Overall, we’re playing well at the right time,” Dowse said. “The seed coming out of the region tournament is going to be very important. When you look at how the state bracket is set with the potential matchups, it’s important that we do well next week.”