Fayette County Lady Tigers (26-5) vs. Southwest DeKalb Lady Panthers (30-2), 3 p.m.

The Fayette County Lady Tigers continue to make school history and a win tonight would go down as one of the biggest moments in county history and one of the biggest upsets in Georgia high school basketball history.

The Lady Panthers have won 23 games in a row and every win this season has been by a double digit margin. Their only losses this season were to Stephenson, a team that made the final four in Class AAAAA. Southwest DeKalb has never won a state title, but they are certainly poised to win it all this year after destroying Westlake 90-63 in the semi-final.

The Lady Panthers are deep, despite only having four seniors on the roster. Charenee Stephens is one of those seniors. A South Carolina signee, Stephens is a 6’1” center, but sophomores Kayla Lewis and Alondra Rivers, juniors Kajuanna Rivers and Laquisha Lewis and senior Eboni Mitchell have all been leading scorers in different games this season.

The Lady Tigers may have their work cut out for them, but they are certainly no slouches. They have won 10 games in a row and three of those wins were by three points or less, every other win in that span was by a double digit margin.

Anma Onyeuku has been leading the way for Fayette. She had 16 points, six steals and seven rebounds in the semi-final win over Madison County. Tessah Holt scored 12 points and added five steals and five assists, while Kristene Walker chipped in seven points and six assists and Sasha Sims added six points and five rebounds.

The numbers between these two teams are closer than expected though. The Lady Panthers have an edge on offense, averaging 62.5 points per game to Fayette’s 53.1, but defense, which has been the Lady Tigers bread and butter all season, gives them an edge. Fayette County has allowed an average of 35.7 points per game to Southwest DeKalb’s 36.6.

Fayette needs to keep this game close, continue to play awesome defense and control the pace of the game. If they get too far behind and start putting up crazy shots, the Lady Panthers are likely to explode.

Fayette County Tigers (23-9) vs. Columbia Eagles (29-3), 4:45 p.m.

Prior to this season, the Fayette County Tigers had never advanced out of the first round of the state playoffs. Their opponent in tomorrow’s Class AAAA state final, the Columbia Eagles, have played in the last two state finals. They won it all in 2006 and lost to Tucker last year. Will knowing what to expect in a state final give Columbia a boost or is ignorance truly bliss? We will know by early tomorrow evening.

The Tigers have won four games in a row, all state playoff games, and are 9-1 over their last 10 games. Noel Johnson led the way for Fayette in their semi-final win over Miller Grove with 29 points and 10 rebounds, while Brandon Boykin added 15 points, six rebounds and nine assists and Cuincy Carruthers had 16 points and three steals.

Columbia has won five games in a row and are also 9-1 over their last 10 games. In their four state playoff games, only their second round game against Pebblebrook was decided by a single digit margin. In their semi-final win over Westlake, Travis Leslie, a 6’5’ senior, led Columbia with 20 points, while Darrius Morrow, a 6’9” senior, chipped in 16. Other seniors on the Eagles roster are Cameron Jones, David Forrest, Kenny Mitchell, Antonio Wilson, Craig Pattilar and De De Kalu. The team also got a huge performance this season from JerShon Cobb, a 6’5” sophomore shooting guard.

The two teams are evenly matched on offense with Columbia averaging 69.8 points per game and Fayette scoring an average of 69.5 points a game. Columbia has scored a total of nine points more than the Tigers this season. On defense, the Eagles have a decided edge, allowing an average of 53.3 points per game to Fayette’s 60.2.

Columbia has a lot of size - 11 players are 6’2” or taller and six of those players are 6’5” or taller. Fayette County has 11 players 6’ tall or taller, but only four of those 11 are 6’5” or taller. Fayette County has some diverse talent and has shown that they are able to win all types of games in a variety of ways.

The question is, can the Tigers defeat a team that beat a team (Westlake) they couldn’t ? If the Tigers can get some of their key players off the bench involved in the offense to open things up for Johnson, Boykin and Carruthers, the Tigers have a good shot at making history tomorrow.

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