Victory lap: St. Patrick’s parade a proud homecoming for East Laurens girls hoops state champs

Friday afternoon, the East Laurens Lady Falcons won a state basketball title. 

Saturday morning, they had their championship parade. 

Dublin’s traditional St. Patrick’s procession turned into the perfect victory lap for players and coaches who got to hold their newly gained trophy high as the crowds lining downtown streets gave them ovations almost every few steps. 

“It was great,” said senior Layla Tanner. “We have a bunch of supporters, and to see how many people were cheering for us, it was great to see all that.” 

Their float was a Tanner Service Center flatbed, driven by East Dublin city councilman, Falcon supporter and proud player grandparent Len Tanner, with banners reading “East Laurens Girls Varsity Basketball – State Champions” signed by each member of the team draped alongside. 

Coaches Danielle Lowther and Scotteria Rozier had seats atop the wrecker as a few of the players rode along the edges, while others walked along behind it. The brightly polished silver trophy cup changed hands as different players took turns carrying it along the route. 

All were smiling as spectators lining every part of the route offered their applause, cheers and way-to-gos.  

“It feels good that people are supporting us and that our community is behind us,” senior Deanna Lowther said. 

This was kind of the perfect opportunity for a triumphant homecoming, which gave many who couldn’t be in Macon to support in person due to Friday’s midday tipoff an opportunity to give them their due moment of recognition. 

East Dublin, Dublin and Laurens County still showed out with a strong turnout to the Coliseum, as plenty more watched the championship game at home on GPB. And the Lady Falcons, all Friday night and Saturday, were the talk of the town. 

“It was awesome,” Coach Lowther said. “Just seeing the community, seeing different people in the community just watching us. We’ve kind of been the focal point, in a sense. It’s awesome just coming back to where your community is and celebrating a little bit.”

The game was mostly decided, as Elbert County failed to score after going ahead slightly with a little under three minutes left.

East Laurens only slowly slammed the door, but added five unanswered free throws to its original lead of two – regained with the help of a four-point swing as Alasia Wiggins sunk a pair at the line, and Zahmaria Robison hit a layup – in the last 30 seconds of the game. 

As the Lady Falcons were pulling away, the Macon Coliseum echoed with the “Fire it up, Eastside” chant from fans dressed in mostly black across multiple sections of the arena. 

Moments later, East Laurens players exploded onto the court as the buzzer sounded to make their 63-55 win, and championship dreams, a reality. 

“It felt so great,” said senior Jameria Bing. “It felt like we really were on top. Once that buzzer went off, it felt like all that hard work we put in throughout the season, it finally came true. It made us where we had got that whole trophy we had talked about it the whole season. It was great to see, and finally have in our hands and know that we brought it home to East Dublin.” 

Though this – as East Laurens High School’s first team state championship in history – is something monumental on its own, the accomplishment was as much a milestone for a senior class of players who’ve broken a lot of ground in their decorated basketball careers. 

As sophomores, they were part of a team that finished region runner-up, and won a pair of playoff games on the road to reach the quarterfinals. A year later, it as a region title and step further to the Final Four for the first time ever. 

This season, they became the program’s first team since 1999 and 2000 to win back-to-back region championships, and to make the state finals. 

Taking the final step, and doing what it took to get through the pesky barriers that had prevented it the seasons leading up, was what was most satisfying. 

“It was a good moment,” Deanna Lowther said. “It was like one of the moments where we finally won it. After so long and after all the hard work that we put in, we finally won it.” 

The Lady Falcons are no strangers to handling third-quarter surges. 

Elbert County came with likely the strongest they’ve seen since the last game of the regular season when Northeast Macon flipped an early lead, and handed their shorthanded lineup a couple-point loss. 

The Blue Devils, with a 13-8 surplus in the third, ate up all but four points of the nine in East’s halftime advantage, and eliminated the rest of the cushion to grab a brief lead of one midway through the fourth. 

Down to the last couple of minutes, the game was right up there for grabs. But East Laurens, with its usual edge provided inside by prolific shot-blockers and rebounders Deanna Lowther and Garyunna Mitchell, made the handful of gritty plays needed to pull it out. The Lady Falcons also, in no small detail, made seven out of their last nine free throw attempts to atone for 10 misses at the line back in the first half. 

“It took a lot of heart and pride,” said Bing, who was out of the game for a solid chunk of time in the critical stretch after picking up her third and fourth fouls back-to-back late in the third quarter. 

East Laurens, which has survived many of these runs all season and fully expected this type of rally from a notorious second-half team, knew this year was different from last. But they couldn’t help but recall a year ago at Georgia College, and a similar situation out of halftime that would lead to their elimination in the state semifinals. 

Despite leading 30-25 at the half, they’d be outscored by nine and five in the last two quarters. 

That’s where their resolve to make this time different, formed sometime just after that game early last March, started to kick in. For Deanna Lowther, it came down to “working so hard to get something you wanted so bad.” 

“They were coming back,” Bing said. “We had to push through and fight just how anybody else would. It was a matter of who wanted it more, and we had really really wanted it. We had been talking about it for the longest time… since last season… We knew we couldn’t have that happen again, so we had to keep it strong.” 

Once again, you could see an overpowering sense of joy in the expressions of Coach Lowther as she paced the bench, with the late lead solidified, glancing up at the scoreboard and across to the hundreds of supporters on their feet in the stands.

The experience of playing at the Coliseum and feeling the energy of the electric crowd over those few final moments will be her most unforgettable memory.

“Seeing the community behind us, it just speaks volumes about when our community comes together for something special,” she said. 

For the players, it was a moment to encapsulate everything that made this season special, with their 27 wins and state title as a bonus to the camaraderie of teammates and the fun of playing the game of basketball throughout the season. 

“It was very exciting,” Tanner said. “It was emotional, because it’s my last year. But it was exciting that we got to go as far as we did, and we won state.” 

If it didn’t set in with Friday’s trophy presentation or an LCSO-escorted ride down I-16 and back through East Dublin for a cheering reception from hometown supporters waiting on campus, then it had to at some point during Saturday’s parade, right? 

A few Lady Falcons may still be pinching themselves. 

“I woke up this morning and said, am I really a state champion? Is our team really a state champion?” Coach Lowther said. “It’s still an unbelievable moment.”