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Lady Gators survive, and advance
Lady Gators survive and advance
Bulloch Academy senior guard Abby Newton drives in for a layup in the second half of the Gators opening round state playoff game against Heritage. - photo by JOSH AUBREY/staff
The Bulloch Academy Lady Gators punched their ticket to the GISA state quarterfinals Tuesday night, but it wasn’t an easy victory. The Gators had to hold off a late charge by the Heritage Hawks, before finally prevailing 42-37 Tuesday at Augusta Prep.The Gators built a comfortable fourth quarter lead, but the Hawks started raining down three pointers, and eventually cut the Bulloch Academy lead to 39-37 with just under two minutes to play.“I have seen plenty of tape of games Heritage has played throughout the year,” said Bulloch Academy coach Chancler Dennard. “This has to be the most three pointers they have made in a game this year.”The Hawks hit six three pointers in the second half as they cut the lead to two, but the Gators held Heritage scoreless the final 1:55 of the game, and Abby Newton helped seal the victory with three free throws in the final minute.“This group just doesn't seem to like to make things easy for me,” Dennard said. “I thought we had a pretty comfortable lead, but give Heritage credit as they fought back. Abby made some big free throws, and we were able to weather the storm and survive and advance.”In a low scoring first half, the Gators opened up a 9-6 lead after one quarter of play.