Pope Girls Ousted in State Tourney

ATHENS—Ending a nine-year absence from the state playoffs, the Pope Lady Greyhounds advanced to the second round of the AAAA Georgia High School Association tournament Tuesday night at Clarke Central, but a lack of experience and a surplus of turnovers took their toll as the East Cobb girls suffered a season-ending 57-30 loss.

The inevitable rookie nerves showed from the start for the Greyhounds, who quickly fell behind the Gladiators and forced Coach Courtney Harris to call a timeout 52 seconds into the game when they had trouble beating Clarke Central's 1-2-1-1 three-quarter-court press.

But the Lady Greyhounds settled down. They trailed by only three points, 12-9, at the end of the first quarter and took the lead midway through the second quarter at 17-16 on a 3-pointer by senior Brady Boggs.

That lead didn't last long, however, and Pope trailed 22-18 at halftime.

Clarke Central came out for the third quarter in a 2-2-1 half-court pressure defense, and Pope had a difficult time breaking that pressure.

“We’ve actually seen it a couple of times and are usually able to break it easily,” Harris said, “but their nerves got the best of them.”

Pope's turnovers piled up, and the Greyhounds started running out of fuel near the end of the third quarter. Clarke Central held its biggest lead of the game, 14 points, entering the fourth quarter at 40-26.

The Greyhounds were never able to make a move in the final quarter, scoring only four points while the Gladiators pulled away for the 57-30 win. After the tight first half, Clarke Central outscored Pope 35-12 in the second half.

While Clarke Central advanced to a quarterfinal matchup Friday night with Chattahoochee, Pope ends its season at 23-7. The team loses four seniors but has five sophomores and two juniors on the roster to build on this season next year.

Inexperience and turnovers were the keys to the Pope loss, Harris said. Clarke County is "a very quick team, a very good team. We had a lot of turnovers, more than normal.”

Senior Angela Davis was the leading scorer for Pope, accounting for half the Greyhounds' 30 points in her final high school game.