Sprayberry No Match For No. 1 Seed Creekview

If defense wins championships, then the GHSA might want to give the state championship trophy to Creekview right now. The Lady Grizzly stingy defense forced 29 turnovers Friday as Creekview cruised to a 59-25 win over No. 4 seed Sprayberry in the first round of the AAAA state playoffs. The victory represented the first tournament win in school history for the Creekview girls.

For Creekview coach Roger Nolan, the game plan was simple: stop Sprayberry star Nadia Ogene. "Stopping Nadia Ogene was the key," Nolan said after the game. "I knew if Madison Rice was able to put ball pressure on [Ogene] without getting into foul trouble, we would be all right."

Rice's defense was impenetrable most of the night. The junior recorded eight steals and the Lady Grizzlies as a team held Ogene to only seven points.

"They wouldn't let [Nadia] have the ball and that caused us problems because she's our primary ball handler," Sprayberry coach Mark Giles said after the game. "The pressure on Nadia forced us to let freshman and sophomores handle the ball." Besides Ogene, Sprayberry's four other starters are either freshmen or sophomores.

Creekview's suffocating defense limited the Lady Jackets to single digits in all four quarters.

Offensively, 11 of the 12 players on Creekview's roster found their way into the scorebook. The Lady Grizzlies were led by Emma Cook who had 11, teammate Alyssa Nichelson added 10. Hannah Hunter also had a nice night, the sophomore hit two 3-pointers and finished the game with eight points.

For Sprayberry (17-12), Marchelle Lunsford led the way with eight points.

Creekview will be back in action on Tuesday when they host No. 2 seed Miller Grove in a Sweet 16 game. The time of the game will be announced Monday. Miller Grove was a 45-38 winner over Rockdale County.

Giles likes the Lady Grizzlies chances in round two, "Creekview's a good team," he says. "It wouldn't surprise me to see them win in the next round."