Lady Patriots charge into final
The Homewood Lady Patriots looked tentative early, but they were absolutely smoking late, blowing out Austin of Decatur 66-40 in the semifinals of the Class 6A girls AHSAA State Finals tournament. Homewood will face Blount on Saturday at 1 p.m.
The Lady Pats outscored Austin 43-19 in the second half to pull away to an unexpectedly easy win.
Athleticism, defense and relentless work on the boards enabled Homewood to top the bigger Lady Black Bears.
"I thought we could do that if we crashed the boards and set the tempo with our defense," coach JoVanka Ward said. "We base everything we do on our defense."
Both teams struggled with their shooting in the first period.
Austin crawled out to a 6-0 lead, and the Lady Patriots didn't manage a basket until 3:23 was
left in the period.
But Hannah Barber's third straight basket, a nifty driving layup, tied the game at 6 with 1:55 left. But The Lady Black Bears added a bucket and a free throw to lead 9-6 after a quarter.
Homewood took the lead with just 20 seconds gone in the second quarter when Barber found Ajah Wayne with a long pass off a turnover and Wayne's layin gave the Lady Pats a 10-9 lead.
But Austin found its shooting touch and stretched its lead to 17-13 with an 8-3 run.
Homewood's Kalia Cunningham knocked down a 3 and Wayne followed up a steal with a layup to give Homewood an 18-17 lead. An Austin free throw tied game before Lia Roberson's shot from the baseline gave Homewood a 20-18 lead. Wayne followed that with a trey from the other corner and Homewood led 23-18 with a minute left in the half. An Austin trey just before the horn cut the Lady Pats' lead to 23-21 at the half.
Wayne led the Lady Pats with nine points and seven rebounds and Barber added six points. Austin controlled the boards 28-22 but Homewood forced 13 turnovers.
Aaliyah Rice led Austin with seven first-half points.
A Barber jumper gave Homewood a 25-21 lead early in the third quarter and Wayne followed her own miss to push the lead back to 27-21.
After trading free throws, another Barber steal led to Roberson layup and a 30-22 lead with 4:32 left in the third.
A blistering baseline drive by Roberson gave Homewood a 36-27 lead and Cunningham stole the inbounds pass and flipped up a circus shot from underneath the hoop to push the lead to 38-27 seconds before the horn sounded
Homewood outscored the Lady Black Bears 15-6 in the quarter.
"That shot did give us the momentum," Barber said.
It seemed to give the Lady Patriots even more confidence. Wayne found Webb for a bucket-and-one; Webb added another hoop; Barber found Maya Cook-Stroupe for a layup; two more baskets by Wayne and Hardy pushed the lead to 49-28 with 5:05 to play.
An Austin timeout didn't stop the onslaught. Cook-Stroupe knocked in another shot 51-28 to cap a 13-1 run. Austin managed its first field goal of the quarter with just over four minutes to play in the game.
The Lady Patriots built a 26-point lead before the benches emptied the subs with just under two minutes to play.
Wayne finished with 17 points and 17 rebounds, nine of them offensive, and four steals. Barber had 15 points, five assists and two steals. Webb had 10 points and seven rebounds.
Austin committed 23 turnovers to just 11 for Homewood. The Lady Pats ended up winning the boards, 54-44, getting 20 offensive boards and 12 second-chance points, all in the second half.
Rice led Austin with 13 points, the only Lady Bear in double figures.
Homewood is now 29-4. Austin's season ended at 27-5.