Westlake Completes 4-Peat Quest With 64-46 Win Over Carrollton For GHSA 6A State Title
On Friday, the Westlake Lions girls basketball team took on the Carrollton Trojans in the Georgia High School Association Class 6A state championship game. The Lions came into the night looking to claim their fourth consecutive state title while the Trojans looked to win their first since 2009. Carrolton would come out looking to set the tone early and take control as they jumped out to an early 5-0 lead, but it would not take long for Westlake to close the gap and eventually take the lead after outscoring the Trojans 14-8 to end the quarter with a 14-13 lead. The game would remain tight throughout the second quarter as the first half would come to an end tied 25-25.
At the start of the third quarter, the game would continue to remain close but a key and would prove to be a crucial turning point would be when Carrolton’s Kehinde Obasuyi would go down with an apparent shoulder injury and her absence would be felt by the Trojans in their perimeter game as she 13 points at the time of the injury. The Lions made sure to take advantage of Obasuyi’s absence as they would extend their lead to eight points by the end of the third period. In the fourth quarter, Westlake would take full control as they would outscore Carrollton 20-10 in the period and go on to pick up the 64-46 win. Westlake’s Ta’Niya Latson would lead all player with 24 points while Raven Johnson would add 10 points along with 6 rebounds, 4 assist and 1 steal. For Carrollton, De’Maurie Flournoy would finish with 15 points, 4 rebounds and 6 assist.
Following the win Westlake head coach, Hilda Hankerson, said this season was far from easy. “To say it was easy, that would be a lie,” Hankerson said and continued, “The whole thing is that those seniors, that were here from the very first championship really dug in and that’s only two of them,” referring to Johnson and Brianna Turnage. “Those two said, they were not going to let us down and they led us here,” Hankerson added. The Lions finish the season 20-0 and the win completes their historic run of over 100 consecutive wins over Georgia opponents.
