Woodstock Continues Historic Season, Defeats Brookwood 75-58 For First State Title Game Appearance
In a season that has seen the Woodstock Wolverines girls basketball team reach historic moments, the history making continued of Friday night, when the Wolverines took on the Brookwood Broncos in the Georgia High School Association Class 7A state championship tournament semi finals, which was their first final four appearance in the programs history. And with a 75-58 win over the Broncos, the Wolverines continue to make program history as they win their first final four game and will make their first state title game appearance in the programs history.
The Wolverines came out and set the tone early as they took a 5-0 lead and never trailed in the game. Woodstock would close out the opening quarter with a 19-10 lead, but Brookwood, led by Diana Collins (28 points) would back back outscoring the Wolverines 18-15 in the second quarter and would trail 34-28 at the half. In the quarter, the Wolverines would regain momentum as Bridget Utberg would score eight of her 29 points in the period helping Woodstock outscore Brookwood 18-12 to lead 52-40 heading into the fourth quarter.
Despite a Brookwood squad that refused to go down quietly, the Wolverines would close out the game owning the fourth quarter to pick up the win. Following the game, Woodstock head coach Regina Tate-Leslie said she was still in taking in the fact that her team would be traveling to Macon next week to play in their first state title game. "Honestly, I don't think it's hit me yet," Tate-Leslie said of their semi final win. "They're a good team (Brookwood) and my team played out of their mind tonight, I think we had a season high in points and I had people step up, I think it will hit me a little bit later tonight because I'm still replaying it, but we're going to be playing in the championship game and that's not what I thought we'd be doing."
Tate-Leslie went on to point out that the tone they set in the first quarter was largely in part to a couple players in particular that she challenged to step up, Savannah Casey, who finished with 11 points and Sarah Grace Bertolini who added seven points. "I learned a phrase tonight, "pop out", so I told them, I need ya'll to pop out tonight. And that first quarter, that's what they did," Tate-Leslie said of Casey and Bertolini. "They attacked the basket, Savannah was getting rebounds and offensive put backs. Honestly, that first quarter came to the role players popping out," Tate-Leslie said. Ujp next for the Wolverines will be Marietta who defeated McEachern and will also be playing for their first state title.
Watch highlights from the game and post game interview with Coach Regina Tate-Leslie below now!
