How Greenville girls basketball 'turned it up' to win Upper State title
Gaffney has been a feel-good story this high school girls basketball season, with first-year coach Bubba Wright leading the program to the state semifinals for the first time in four decades.
Greenville put a stop to all that rather quickly.
The Lady Red Raiders beat Gaffney 57-44 in the SCHSL Class 5A Division 2 Upper State championship Feb. 28 at Wofford College. They did it in a flash, going from down four at the half to getting on their way to a blowout before fans even got settled back in their seats.
“We turned it up,” Greenville senior Ava Owens said. “Big time.”
Greenville (22-6) scored 11 straight points in less than two minutes, the defense getting quick turnovers for layups.
That was the end for Gaffney (22-7), which was outscored coming out of the break and bleeding into the fourth quarter 26-3.
The Lady Raiders made March 5 a state title doubleheader for the school at Colonial Life Arena in Columbia. The girls will play Berkeley (22-5) at 6 p.m., and the defending champion Greenville boys (23-6) will play Westwood (24-3) at 8 p.m.
Greenville’s girls last won a state championship in 2011, but they were close last season, losing in overtime to Greenwood in the Upper State final in Florence.
“We try not to talk about last year,” Greenville coach Anthony Gowens said. “But we have a group that went through it, so they knew what to expect. They knew what they had to do to get past this point. They came out in the second half with a different mindset, and it worked.”
Owens, the only senior, led the charge in that third quarter with seven points and finished with 13. Miracle Cheeks had six of her 11 in the quarter.
“We knew what was lacking in the first half, even though we had talked about it before,” Owens said. “Gaffney came out and played really hard. We just weren’t ready. But to start the second half, we stepped up big on the defensive end.”
Gaffney senior Shiriah Harris finished the first half with six straight points on her way to 29 and hit a buzzer-beater to put her team up four at the half.
“Even though we were down, four points doesn’t mean anything to us,” Greenville junior A’keyra Harris said. “We put emphasis on defense. We live on defense. Our offense comes from defense. So, if the defense is going, the shots are falling.”
Todd Shanesy covers high school athletics for the Greenville News, Spartanburg Herald-Journal and Anderson Independent Mail in the USA TODAY Network. Contact him by email at todd.shanesy@shj.com. Follow him on X, formerly called Twitter, at @ToddShanesySHJ.
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Greenville girls basketball reaches SCHSL playoffs state championship
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