Sandy Creek shocks Bulldogs in final four

As the third quarter drew to a close a handful of Sandy Creek players walked over to the scores table and slapped their hands on the desk signifying that this was their time.

Head coach Cedric King wanted his players to come out and play fast and aggressive and that’s exactly what they did. The Lady Patriots of Sandy Creek High School went on a 19-0 run in the fourth quarter to defeat the Lady Bulldogs of Mary Persons 48-23 in the AAAA semi-finals last Saturday at Fort Valley State University.

“We wanted to attack and play aggressive and when we play our game no one can beat us,” said King.

Although the Lady Patriots have made it to the state championship game for the first time in school history that feat isn’t enough for King or his team.

“We didn’t come here for that. We came here to win a state championship,” said King. “Right now I’m in game mode and my team is in game mode. We have one more to go.”

The Patriots used a fast pace offense with relentless defensive pressure to slow down the no. 6 ranked Lady Bulldogs. The Lady Patriots forced four consecutive turnovers to start the fourth quarter and began to out hustle the Bulldogs grabbing lose rebounds and scrambling to the basket for easy buckets in transition.

The Patriots never trailed in the game but the Bulldogs came close to taking the lead just once at 7-7 early in the first quarter. However Junior Sydney Jarmon hit two clutch three-pointers to spark a 12-2 run to end the quarter.

The Bulldogs were led by Aleah Holden who finished the night with 11.  Jarmon led the Patriots with 18 points and Courtney Street added 11. Senior Safiya Martin hauled in 14 rebounds and four blocked shots on defense.

Sandy Creek will play the Eagles of Columbia High School for the state championship Thursday in the Macon Coliseum at 7 p.m.

*Editors note: you can follow the citizen @citizensport during the game for live tweets*