The dream run for Elbert County girls’ basketball continues.
When the buzzer sounded Saturday on the No. 12 seed Lady Devils’ 48-45 upset over No. 8 Putnam County to advance to the GHSA A state championship game a mix of elation and relief filled the air as Elbert advanced to its first state title game since 2022. And it seemed to all hit a visibly emotional Josh Jones at once.
“I think it was just because nobody expected us to be here,” the head coach said. “Nobody really picked us to win, and just knowing the process that it's taken to get to this point, I think it all just kind of came out right there at the end of the game.”
Putnam County is only an hour and a half away from the game’s host destination of Fort Valley State University, compared to about three hours from Elberton. It resulted in the crowd skewing a bit towards the Lady War Eagles’ favor, only amplifying the intensity of what was already a close game for essentially the entire duration.
The game got off to a physical start, with both teams determined to impose their will in the post. There was a struggle for nearly every rebound and most looks at the basket came at the cost of heavy contact.
Elbert trailed 18-12 after the first quarter and remained at an arm’s length for much of the second. They trailed 22-12 with over five minutes to play in the second period before 3-pointers from seniors Kaylen Rucker and Zy Belcher jumpstarted the offense.
Elbert eventually went into half down 27-22, having successfully managed to keep Putnam’s lead from ballooning and remaining very much in striking distance.
Sophomore point guard Tiyah Turman converted a pair of contested layups to begin the third quarter, and Elbert tied it at 29 after a Rucker free throw. The Lady Devils took the lead with an elbow pull-up from junior Audrey Lunsford, but Putnam pulled back ahead and led 40-37 entering the fourth quarter.
Elbert had multiple players in foul trouble, with junior guard Aaliyah Allen picking up two early fouls and Turman getting called for her fourth in the fourth quarter. But both stayed in the game late and came up big for the Lady Devils.
“It's just them showing the maturity that they can handle being out there and playing with those fouls, still being able to do what they need to do,” Jones said. “It just shows a lot to me about the maturity level of our team, basketball wise.”
Putnam’s lead grew to seven points with just under six minutes left after a 3-pointer and free throw, but Elbert quickly got it back to a one-point game with a 6-0 run that included a pair of free throws from Allen and two baskets by freshman Bryleigh Dickerson, one of which came on a coast-to-coast feed from Belcher.
The Lady Devils rebounded a missed 3-pointer and pushed it up the court before Allen got fouled. She split the free throws to tie the game at 44 points with just under four minutes remaining.
From that point, a defensive stalemate ensued and neither team scored for about two minutes of game time. But then, Lunsford got the ball on the right elbow and nailed a jumper that put the Lady Devils up 46-44 with two minutes to play.
“We had a couple possessions in a row right there where I don't think we made the best decisions,” Jones said. “But each time we were able to come back and stop them as well. I think everybody kind of tightened up a little bit right there at the end. But once we got the lead, I felt pretty good.”
Putnam County made a free throw to make it a one-point game and then both teams traded misses. With 53 seconds left, Allen caught the ball in traffic towards the top of the key, split the defenders and dropped in a floater just outside the restricted area to put Elbert County up 48-45.
On the next possession, Rucker and Allen trapped the Putnam ballhandler and Rucker ripped it away. However, Putnam pulled off a similar trap of its own and forced an Elbert turnover to get the ball back, down by three points with 26.8 seconds remaining.
Putnam got an open look from behind the arc but it rimmed out and Lunsford secured the board. After a few seconds of keep-away, Turman got intentionally fouled and went to the line with a chance to effectively seal the game with 9.7 seconds left.
She came up empty, but as the second free throw rimmed out, Belcher went up amid a pair of two other Putnam players looking to secure the rebound. It got tipped up in the air and one Lady War Eagle looked like she had a good shot at it, but Belcher wouldn’t be denied.
As the ball spilled back inbounds due to Putnam’s attempt to not step on the out-of-bounds line, Belcher got low, finally corralled the ball and then dribbled it back out. She tossed it over to Turman, who avoided the intentional foul attempt as the buzzer officially sounded, capping off the chaotic sequence and sending the Lady Devils to the state championship.
Jones could be spotted frantically jumping up and down in the final seconds as Turman dribbled the clock out, and the entire bench erupted as soon as the buzzer finally sounded.
Belcher led the team in scoring and rebounding with 13 and five respectively, along with a block. Lunsford scored 12 points while Rucker recorded 10 points and three steals. Allen and Turman were highly disruptive on defense, each being credited with four steals apiece.
This is Elbert County’s second time reaching the state championship game under Jones and its third Final 4 berth since he became head coach in 2018. However, this is the first time of those three appearances where Elbert had not finished as either region champion or runner-up.
Elbert will head to Macon on Friday to play No. 3 seed East Laurens in the state title game at 1 p.m. The Lady Falcons are 27-4 this season and have made the Final 4 two years in a row under head coach Danielle Lowther.
East Laurens beat Thomasville 55-45 to advance to the state championship. Their only common opponent with Elbert was ACE, whom East Laurens beat 56-48 in December before Elbert beat them 59-39 in the first round of the state playoffs.
Senior guard Jameria Bing leads East Laurens in scoring with 14.5 points per game. Freshman post player Garyunna Mitchell averages 13.3 points, and senior Deanna Lowther averages a double-double with 12.8 points and 13.1 rebounds per game.
“They're a hot team right now too,” Jones said. “I think it's a good matchup size-wise, they don’t have anybody any bigger than what we have, they like to press as well. They're closer to making than we are, so I expect them to have a good crowd there too. It’s on us to do what we have to do to be ready.”
Digital tickets for the game are available on GoFan. Tipoff is scheduled for 1 p.m. at Macon Coliseum. All of the games will be on Georgia Public Broadcasting and its livestream platforms including Twitch, YouTube and Facebook.
“I'm hoping that we can flip that and get everybody from Blue Devil nation to show up on Friday for us in Macon and we can just show them what we're really all about,” Jones said.