The Douglas County girls basketball team has lost just one game this season, a 74-64 setback against top-ranked Tucker on Dec. 19.
Now it will have a chance to avenge that loss when the teams meet again in the Class AAAAAA semifinals at 3 p.m. Saturday in Carrollton.
Fourth-ranked Douglas County advanced to that rematch with a 56-52 quarterfinal victory over No. 7 Parkview on Thursday at the University of West Georgia.
Douglas County (28-1) outscored Parkview 11-4 in the final three and a half minutes to win a game that was close throughout. Parkview had the biggest lead of the game when it went up 13-7 in the first quarter, and Douglas County’s largest lead was 39-34 late in the third quarter. It was tied at the end of the first and second quarters and a two-point game at the end of the third.
Douglas County failed to pull away because of its struggles from the free-throw line, despite a huge advantage in attempts. The Tigers had 35 attempts to just six for Parkview (23-8), but they made only 22. However, Douglas County was 7-for-8 from the line in the final three minutes to secure the victory.
“We never could get away from them,” Douglas County coach Chet Forsh said. “We’d turn them over and then we’d come down and miss our layups and miss our free throws. We missed them early, but we made them late. That was big.”
Ashanti Brown’s two free throws with 2:41 remaining gave the Tigers the lead for good at 49-48. Amari Robinson followed a minute later with two more for a 51-48 lead, and Amari Atwater made three of four in the final 38 seconds, including two with 5.6 seconds to play to seal the victory.
Robinson led Douglas County with 17 points, including eight in the fourth quarter. She made a big 3-pointer that gave the Tigers the lead back at 42-40 after Parkview’s Autumn Sizemore opened the quarter with a 3-pointer that gave Parkview its first lead in almost eight minutes.
Sayah Brooks scored 13 for the Tigers, and Arsula Clark had 11.
Parkview’s Kristi Derouen led all scorers with 22 points and made two of the Panthers’ eight 3-pointers. Sizemore made four 3-pointers to finish with 12 points, and Sydney Fields scored 11.
