Lady Lions win region in tie-breaker
Playing game beats coin flip, coach says
A high school basketball schedule is typically set far before the team plays its first game. However, after playing every one of their 25 scheduled regular season games, the Augusta Christian Lady Lions had to add one more game to their schedule.
The Augusta Christian girls finished the regular season tied for first place in the South Carolina Independent Schools Association's Region 2-AAA standings. Both Augusta Christian and Cardinal Newman sported identical 6-2 region records.
SCISA's first tie-breaker is a head-to-head match-up. Because the teams split their two games in the regular season, the region championship came down to the second tie-breaker - a final game at a neutral site for all the region marbles.
Although it meant an extra game for the Lady Lions, Augusta Christian girl's basketball coach Keith Walton was fine with the tie-breaker. The alternative would have been a simple coin flip, a method used by Augusta Christian's former affiliation, the Georgia Independent Schools Association.
"I've had to flip a coin twice, and I've come out on the losing end both times," Walton said. "I wish we could have played those games just to see what would have happened. This time, we actually got a chance to play them."
Not only did the Lady Lions play Cardinal Newman for the regular season region championship, they beat them.
Augusta Christian's 42-39 win last Saturday night gave the school its first-ever girl's basketball regular season region championship.
Senior guard Jordan Little scored 12 points on the night while junior Casey Brush added another 12 points and six rebounds. Walton said the junior forward came through in the clutch late in the fourth quarter.
"We had an offensive rebound by Casey. She put it back, got fouled and hit her free throws," he said. "Casey pretty much took over the last two minutes of the game."
Saturday night's win also guaranteed a first-round bye in the region tournament and secured at least a No. 2 seed in the state tournament.
The Lady Lions finished the regular season with a 21-5 record and are ranked No. 3 in the SCISA AAA Poll.