Lady Cougars Qulaify for State

The Piedmont Academy Lady Cougars were set to enter the GISA Class AA state tournament this week as a No. 3 seed following their performance in the Region 1-AA tournament.

Coach Wes Tanner’s team, which has now won 12 games in 2011-2012, defeated Brentwood 33-26 Friday in the game for third place. Hailey Burnham’s 10 points and Lanie King’s nine points helped lead Piedmont, who was scheduled to begin play at state Wednesday afternoon.

“The region tourney was a great experience for the girls,” Tanner said. “ The goal all along was to be playing on Friday. It did not matter what time or against who. We just wanted to be playing on that day. It just so happened that we were matched up against a team that gave us problems all year in Brentwood.”

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The Brentwood Lady Eagles had been a thorn in the side of the Lady Cougars this season. Brentwood had post a 20-point win and an 11-point victory in the two regular season matchups.

“We did come out of the gates a little slow, but played well enough on defense to keep ourselves in the game early on,” Tanner said. “We knocked down some big shots late in the game and made our free throws to seal it at the end.

“We have said all along that we have to win one of those types of games to prove to ourselves that we can and that’s exactly what we did. We overcame not having our best effort and overcame some foul trouble and got it done. Now the girls get to experience a state tournament.”

Piedmont was scheduled to play Flint River at Middle Georgia College in Cochran in the opening round.

In the win against Brentwood Friday, Heather Tyler contributed seven points while Anna Jones scored three. Kacy Swart and Carley Cain both scored two points.

Tanner’s team trailed 6-4 after the first quarter with the score being tied at halftime at 13. The Lady Cougars held a slim 19-17 advantage after the third quarter. Piedmont would outscored Brentwood 14-9 in the final eight minutes.

The win helped ease the disappointment of a rough contest in the previous region tournament game. Piedmont dropped a 47-13 decision to a strong Gatewood team.

King was the team’s leading scorer with four points while Cain, Burnham, Jones and Beth Anne Mahaffey each scored two. Swart added a free throw.

Piedmont Academy hosted this year’s region tournament.