BUFORD – Being a perennial state title contender is nothing new for the top-ranked Buford girls basketball team.
Call it an old habit, if you will. After all, the Lady Wolves have won three of the last four state championships – two straight in Class 5A.
But, some may have thought Buford’s chances of making the trip back to the championship game in 2019 would be a long shot after last season.
Why?
Buford graduated the bulk of their starting five and several key players off the bench, including star point guard Tory Ozment, who’s at Michigan State, and Audrey Weiner, Mary Walters, Sierra Sieracki, CJ Johnson and Kya Styles – all in college as well.
Buford coach Gene Durden took the graduation losses in stride, however. He knew reloading the roster would be a challenge, but he also knew his building blocks were full of talent. It also helped that part-time starters from last season's state title team, Tate Walters and Ebony Grant, were back to lead the transition.
“Getting to see this group's hard work pay off has been one of the highlights of my coaching career,” he said. “As we have mentioned before, this group did not start preparing for this just this year, they started getting ready for this moment versus our state championship team of last year. We told them that their work last year would pay off in the future and what a way to pay off in having a chance to win another championship.
The Lady Wolves (28-2) hope to add their third straight Class 5A state championship trophy to the already full display case Friday night against a talented and undefeated Villa Rica (32-0) squad in Macon. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m. and will be broadcast live on FM 102.9 & AM 550 WDUN.
It’s not going to be an easy task, especially containing 6-foot-2 forward and Kentucky–signee Deasia Merrill. The Lady Wildcats are averaging 66 points per game while giving up 38 ppg.
“Merrill is a great player that we will have to do our best to control her,” Durden said. “We will not shut her down, but we hope to make her have to work really hard to get her points. If we can keep her around the 15 -17 point range, we think that will give us a great chance to win the ball game. We will just have to do our best on the full and half court to make it as hard on her as possible.”
Durden has built his program on defense, a stingy, trapping, gritty, high-intensity, smothering full-court defense. The Lady Wolves are giving up an average of just 37 ppg.
The offense, however, has been an issue the last couple of games, including a turnover-filled 51-38 win over Southwest DeKalb at Columbus State in the semifinals last week. "Ugly, ugly," as described by Durden.
“We have not played as well on offense the past couple of games and when you play for a state championship, you hope that you will play well on both sides of the ball,” he said. “We think we have so many players that can score, that we hope a couple of our players will step up and score and the others will help contribute in the cause. One thing we think we can count on is our defense to give us a chance to win in case we struggle on offense."
