The Jackets, winners of six of the last nine Class AAAA state championships, tend to roll from the first game of the season until the end of the playoffs, but this stretch right at the end of the regular season is when they want to start peaking as they prepare to face their toughest competition with championships on the line.
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Some inclement weather over the past week and changes led to some unexpected off days for the second-ranked Jackets, leaving head coach Al Young worried that perhaps his shots were off and his conditioning wasn’t at its usual lethal level heading into a big matchup Tuesday night against No. 6 Gray Collegiate with a chance to clinch the Region 4-AAAA title.
Don’t worry, his jackets said.
North Augusta turned in a textbook performance at North Augusta, smothering Gray Collegiate in a 59-21 victory to remain undefeated in the regional standings heading into the final two weeks of the regular season.
Needless to say, Young was pleased with the way his players answered the call, which is a huge positive sign going forward as they prepare for another postseason run.
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“That’s what impressed me the most,” he said. “Going into the game I just wasn’t sure, because I know (Gray Collegiate is) a good team and they’ve been winning and I’m sure they wanted it. This is a very important game for them, like it was for us, so I was very, very impressed and I felt very good about how they came out and played.”
It all starts with North Augusta’s (18-1, 9-0 Region 4-AAAA) defense, the same way it has for the last decade, and Tuesday night proved the Jackets still live up to their reputation. They held a War Eagles (15-5, 7-2) team averaging nearly 58 points well below that mark, and limited Gray Collegiate to eight field goals made over the course of the entire game.
“We emphasize that all the time, more than anything else, and that’s our emphasis. For them to come out and play the way they did defensively, I was very, very proud and impressed,” Young said. “Gray has very good players and good scorers, and I thought we reacted to the things they were trying to do. We took away their scorers and I was very pleased with the way we played.”
A sweep of Gray Collegiate in the regular season means North Augusta only needs to win two of its last five games to finish as regional champions, and that’s not asking much from a program that has won 100 consecutive regional games since January 2016. They have won 17 straight games this season, and their average margin of victory in regional games is 43.9 points per game.
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Ashley Walker led the offense on Tuesday, alternating between quick three-pointers and explosive drives to the basket to score 30 points. That was one shy of the junior’s career high, scored 10 days earlier against Goose Creek, and brings her season average to 17.4 points per game.
“She’s throwing the ball extremely well, and I thought, again tonight, she threw the ball extremely well,” Young said. “When she shoots well, our team is going to play well, because we put a lot of emphasis on defense and we play well defensively. If we can get those types of scores and those types of baskets made by her, that’s a big, big advantage for us.”
There was even more to celebrate Tuesday for the Jackets, with senior guard Celena Grant being selected to the Carolinas Classic All-Star Game and then eclipsing the 1,500-point career mark with a basket in the second quarter.
“For me, it’s a great pleasure. One of the things I can say about Celena is that she is very selfless,” Young said. “I think she could probably go out and score a lot of points every night she steps on the court, but she plays within her game and plays with her teammates. She shares the basketball. When you have players that play like that, I think it’s a big advantage because it gets other players involved, and I think she does a great job at that. So I’m happy she was able to reach that milestone.”
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Walker and Grant got most of the scoring attention, combining for 46 points, but senior guard Kenedi Wright, who had a typical performance in all phases, under the radar. A defensive ace who often gets the biggest assignments in the Jackets’ biggest games, he’s also capable of hitting 3-pointers or converting his team-best 3.7 steals per game into points on the other end.
“I think there’s a young woman who goes unnoticed and is hiding behind all that. It’s Kenedi,” Young said. “I just think she’s calm on the court. She does a lot of things defensively. She doesn’t score a lot, but she’s the key to a lot of the things we do. She calms us down. She keeps us calm. She plays within her game. She doesn’t rush things… I think she goes unnoticed a lot, but she contributes a lot to our team.”
The Jackets return to action at home Friday night against Aiken High.