BASKETBALL: East Laurens girls return to full-strength, roll past Northeast to second-straight region crown

SANDERSVILLE – The celebration in the East Laurens girls’ locker room could be heard even over the music playing during warmups of the boys region championship game that followed theirs Friday night. 

And the Lady Falcons had good reason to get a little rambunctious after defeating Northeast Macon 52-42 to capture their second region title in a row. 

“Back-to-back, back-to-back,” East Laurens head coach Danielle Lowther said with a big grin. “I’ve got to go back and check in the record books and see if that’s ever been done.” 

A glance at the archives over the weekend revealed this year’s team to be the program’s first since 1999 and 2000 to pull off the feat impressive on its own, but even more so considering what this group of players overcame to make it happen. 

Early on, it was questions of the Lady Falcons’ ability to reload after graduating three cornerstone seniors whose fourth year starting culminated in 2025’s region crown and subsequent trip to the Final Four. 

With an overhauled roster this season, they’ve not only matched the former’s success, but arguably surpassed it, with more overall wins to this point than that team had altogether, and a region run (of just two losses in 15 games, including this week’s) even more convincing. 

“I feel like with us being a new team and everybody being so young, it took a lot for us to come together and make sure that we all worked together and make sure we played together and make sure we made a good team,” said senior Jameria Bing. “We are a great team, and you know, with us being a young team and having only like three seniors, it was great that we all could come together and all play as one.” 

Then came some late-season bumps in the road with the temporary loss of five players, two of them starters, to a series of suspensions handed out by the GHSA in connection with the fight that cut the previous week’s Central game short by a few tenths of a second. 

The incident, which largely escalated due to factors outside any of the affected players’ control when multiple spectators got involved, forced the Lady Falcons to play their regular season finale, then Thursday’s region semifinal, with a reduced lineup. 

Though the first turned out as a couple-point loss, East Laurens would bounce back the following week – with essentially two different teams on the separate days – to win both its tournament games by 10. 

“The adversity that we had, losing those girls, in my opinion, for no reason, but losing those girls for that amount of time… basically, they hadn’t played in a whole week,” Lowther said. “So I knew they were going to be rusty, but I’m still proud of them.” 

Re-acclimating to the return of the Thursday inactives, which included two top scorers Bing and freshman Garyunna Mitchell, was no seamless process early in Friday’s title game. Members of the reassembled rotation took some time to get back on the same page, but got things to jell enough when it mattered down the stretch of the second half. 

“It took a lot of teamwork and chemistry and us knowing our players and being where we should be and playing great defense,” Bing said. 

That last point – what’s been a common denominator of wins all season in which the Lady Falcons often quietly took care of business – remained a theme in Friday’s performance, which also wasn’t all that flashy. 

No single player or detail stood out, but the execution – in total – was superior across the board.

“We struggled this game,” Lowther said. “Everybody chipping in and playing a little bit of a role helped us get this win.” 

Without the 3-ball that gave Central some life on Thursday (the Raiderettes, Friday, hit only two from deep before Indiasia Bell’s half-court heave found the basket at the third-quarter horn for their only long-range make of the second) there was little Northeast could do besides try to combine enough baskets and stops to chip away at the double-digit lead East Laurens had built up by the fourth quarter.

Despite the Raiderettes’ 11 made free throws in the last eight minutes, they couldn’t get the deficit down to a number less than eight points, as Lady Falcon scoring leaders Deanna Lowther (12) and Mitchell (10) combined for nine buckets in the paint to keep the lead airtight for the duration of the second half. 

“I was glad that we were able to get some rebounds, box people out, move people out of the way just so we could put some points on the board,” Deanna said. 

Robinson, who scored 20-plus points to help fill the offensive void in the two games leading up, added eight to Friday’s effort. 

“I (had to be) really confident in leading my team,” she said, “make sure I’m handling the ball, because I knew I had to step up, so I did.” 

DeAndrea Lowther joined Alasia Wiggins with seven in the final count. 

The game ultimately hinged on the third quarter, as East Laurens matched the scoring pace of Northeast in a quick start to add to its halftime lead of five, and began to buckle down inside for key rebounds and stops, after a second quarter that had gotten kind of sloppy. 

The Lady Falcons would lead the full eight-minute stretch 20-13. 

“I think we started playing,” Coach Lowther said. “I think Gary started getting a few extra rebounds and putbacks. Our defense turned it up a little bit. ‘Z’ and Deanna kind of settled down a little bit more. But it was just a whole team effort. DeAndrea, I think, made a couple of shots, and Miyah (Smith). It was just a collective team effort.”

At a major tipping point midway through, Wiggins knocked down 3-pointers on consecutive possessions, drawing a charge in between the two, to double East’s six-point lead. 

It’d be in double digits the rest of the period, and went up all the way to 15 as Mitchell put back a missed free throw with a few seconds to go. 

Bell, however, would find the basket on a desperate try from just over the midcourt line to cut it back to a manageable dozen for the Raiderettes at the horn. 

And that would’ve been a major swing if their comeback had gained any traction in the fourth quarter. But that never happened as the Lady Falcons continued to match points, and Northeast struggled getting some makable shots to go in the next few minutes. 

Bell would convert two chances at the foul line to get the Raiderettes within 10 with 5:40 to go, but they weren’t able to break that barrier until a 3-point play by Jada Smith finally got the number down to nine with 2:40 left. 

She’d answer a Zahmaria Robinson free throw with two during an ensuing sequence to trim another point off, and make the score 48-40. 

But the very next possession, East’s DeAndrea Lowther found bottom on a long 2-point try from the right corner to take the lead back to 10. And after a Falcon stop, Mitchell’s tip-back on a rebound Northeast had conceded on a presumed shot clock violation tacked on some insurance.

Both teams did well what they typically do well in the first quarter, the Raiderettes emphasizing their speed in transition, and East Laurens its full-court pressure that picked up two early baskets off of turnovers.  

Alaya Hooks had five of Northeast’s nine in the opening quarter, and very nearly a layup at the end of it that rattled off with a chance of giving the Raiderettes the lead. 

East Laurens opened with a quick 10 highlighted by triples from Bing and DeAndrea Lowther. 

But the Lady Falcons hit an offensive lull for the final few minutes, and descended into an even bigger slump lasting most of the second. 

Northeast would take charge for a few early minutes that were marked by some overall sloppy play as East Laurens turned it over multiple times and gave up a lot of offensive rebounds. 

The Raiderettes, though, were only able to take advantage to the tune five points from the field and seven total before a series of late baskets atoned, with Smith putting in a mid-range jumper and Bing knocking down her second 3 in the last minute for a 21-16 lead at the end of first-half play. 

The Lady Falcons have already served up a heaping plate of crow to those who expressed doubts in their chances of a successful season, or a region repeat. 

“They thought we were going to be sorry since we lost our big three last year,” Robinson said. “But we had to show up and show them.” 

“We had to prove the haters wrong,” Deanna Lowther said. “We had to make them feel that we were who we were.”

For any remaining skeptics, it’d probably be unwise to question their odds of another deep playoff run. East Laurens will have the No. 3 overall seed, and a strong shot, as it opens the state tournament Tuesday night at home against No. 30 Dade County.

The Falcon boys, seeded 13th, will also be at home in the first round as they take on No. 20 Bremen Wednesday night.