Louisa County’s Olivia McGhee headed over to the stands just a few minutes after the Lions finished grinding past Grafton 63-49 in the Class 4 state semifinals.
She wanted to enjoy something that has been absent during the Lions’ incredible campaign — her mom being in the stands. A few Louisa parents, all seemingly decked out in the same green and gold mask, attended their first contest of the year in the state final four and the Lions delivered a win, earning a spot in the state championship game for the first time in program history.
“They’ve been waiting the whole season to come out and see us play,” McGhee said. “It’s just a blessing having them here.”
Their arrival perhaps couldn’t have come at a better time as the Lions picked up the unprecedented win with McGhee scoring 18 to go with 20 from Sylvie Jackson another installment of the one-two punch that has scrambled opponents since the Lions opened the season just before Christmas against Orange County.
“We just made history,” McGhee said. “We’re not done yet, we’re not satisfied until we get that ring — one more game.”
The Lions got to that game — set to take place against Pulaski at Pulaski County High Saturday night — with a huge first quarter that helped build a sizable 36-16 halftime advantage. Jackson was electric in the first half behind the arc with a trio of 3-pointers and then turned to attacking the rim in the second half. That’s when the game became something of a grind, with Grafton eventually cutting the lead down to as little 12 points in the fourth quarter, taking advantage of a Louisa offense wasn’t quite as sharp as it has been, likely in part due to a week-long layoff since the Lions won the Region 4B title last Wednesday.
“We knew going in Grafton wasn’t going to lay down but we’ve been locked in for awhile,” said Louisa coach Nick Schreck. “For us to have to battle through and win another way — we just had to grind it out.”
As Schreck referencened, in the playoffs, the Lions have won with a suffocating defense creating turnovers that led to easy buckets, they’ve won with a sublime performance from McGhee in a heavyweight battle against Monacan where both teams brought their best, and now they’ve won a grinder. That bodes well for whatever Louisa is set to face against Pulaski. That’s a testament to the way the players outside of McGhee and Jackson have also handled these increasingly high pressure contests. A trust and chemistry seems to have been forged over what has been an admittedly short season for the Lions.
“We’re chasing a ring this year so it’s very exciting to play with this team and with all my friends,” said Louisa’s Kyla Banks. “A lot of us have played AAU together and we’ve always been real close.”
Banks had a couple of points, but she was more impactful than the stat sheet indicated because of some adept ball-handling and energetic defense. Lydia Wilson gave the Lions a similar jolt with nine points of offense and Alexis Chapman again stepped up defensively and notched six points including a critical fourth quarter three that stemmed the bleeding as the Clippers started surging. The Lions pressed early, but a lot of their defensive work got done in the halcourt zone as Louisa played three quarters of lockdown defense before Kiara Bombay got loose in the fourth and scored 11 of her 18 points in the final frame. It was too little, too late though as the Lions finished stayed in control for the win.
Now the Lions can turn their attention to finishing the job against Pulaski Saturday night.
“We knew coming into this that we were going to be the team to beat and that we were going to have a target on our back,” McGhee said. “We just need to come with a lot of energy and intensity and be aggressive.”
Louisa has brought that all year. If they bring it on their trip to the southwest part of the state, the Lions could make a little more history.
The first state title ever for the program kind-of history.
