Sequoyah Holds Off Northwest Whitfield

The first thing you noticed at the Region 7-AAAA quarterfinals on Tuesday when the took the floor was their size. Three of their five starters are six feet tall or above and they make up a daunting force underneath the basket. But it wasn’t that impressive size that lead to a 42-39 victory over Northwest Whitfield, Sequoyah’s senior guards lead the way.

“Emily Cain shot us into the first half,” said head coach Rick Bragg. “Obviously one of the things we always try to do with our size is establish an inside game first, and then work it to Emily and Lisa outside. It didn't work out that way, but in the end we were very fortunate.”

Cain hit back-to-back 3-pointers in the first quarter to combat a Rome 5-0 run to start the game and then added three more in the next period. She hit six 3-pointers throughout the game and led all scorers with 20 points.

Northwest Whitfield wasn’t done scoring baskets in quick bursts, however. Down by four points to start the second half and quickly down by eight in the third quarter, Northwest Whitfield went on an 8-0 run to tie the game at 28.

In between quarters, Bragg told his team that whoever played the best defense in the fourth quarter would win the game. The two teams swapped baskets for the first five minutes of the quarter, but when the Lady Chiefs took a lead, his prophecy held true.

“I thought we played really good defense,” said Bragg. “They've got a couple of kids that shoot the three really well and I thought we did a real nice job of making sure they didn't get open looks. Everything we did was really to limit them to just one shot. We said going in that if we could limit them to one shot we'd give ourselves a chance to win.”

When Caine hit a 3-pointer with 1:03 to play, the Lady Chiefs went ahead for good. But they had to fight for the final 63 seconds.

Instead of a rigid strategy session after Caine’s 3-pointer, Bragg took a lighter approach when Northwest Whitfield called a timeout to talk about the last minute of play.

Caine let the girls sit by themselves for about 30 seconds, then burst into the middle of the group and yelled “Boy this is exciting”. Laughter ensued and a weight seemed to fall off the shoulders of his team.

“We start two juniors and a sophomore, and those juniors and sophomores really don't have any region tournament experience,” said Bragg when asked why he chose comedy with a minute to play instead of drawing up a play. “This is a whole different level and we were very, very tight -- both teams were.”

Sequoyah advanced to the semifinals of the 7-AAAA tournament and will play Chattahoochee on Friday. Just as important is the fact that a semifinal appearance means the Lady Chiefs qualify for the state tournament for the second year in a row.