Lady Panthers to play in championship game

Published 1:00 pm Thursday, February 16, 2023

CHULA — Tiftarea Academy’s win count will only go up by one, to 17, but head coach Rob Flick sees Feb. 15th’s win over Southland Academy in the GIAA District 3-AAA playoffs as being two.

The obvious one is that by defeating Southland (43-35), they were to play in the championship game Feb. 17 against Deerfield-Windsor. Possibly the bigger win to Flick, however, is that the victory likely cemented a first round bye in the Class AAA state tournament.

Game time for Deerfield-Windsor (23-1) will be 7 p.m. at Georgia Southwestern State in Americus. Brookwood will take on Southland in the boys final.

“Team effort,” said Flick.

Defense and rebounding led the way against the Lady Raiders, he said. Southland had beaten Tiftarea twice during the regular season.

“We jumped out 7,” said Flick of the 1st quarter score. That expanded to a 10-point lead at halftime. Southland rallied late and cut it to a five-point Tiftarea lead. The Lady Panthers held tight, caused errant shots on Southland’s part and expanded the lead to its final eight points.

Isabel Fernandez was major factor defensively. “She played her tail off,” he said.

Flick said Grace Odom shot the ball well.

“We ran like we needed to,” he said.

He feels confident the Lady Panthers can compete with a Deerfield-Windsor squad that has squashed most of its opponents along the way. Only four Lady Knights games have been decided by 10 points or less. Tiftarea had one of these.