Published: March 03, 2006 09:44 am      

Lady Devils' season ends in Sylvania

Watts "couldn't be more proud"

It’s hard to believe that a 10-20 team could make it to the state playoffs, but that’s exactly what the Jackson High School Lady Devils basketball team did during the 2005-2006 season.

The first half of the season was a struggle with the team searching for players and positions. After starting the season 0-7 many were wondering if the team was ever going to win. But, anytime you have four freshmen playing for a varsity program you have to believe it’s going to take time. And it did.

Finally, on December 10, the skid ceased as Jackson picked up its first victory of the season over Tri-County. The winning would continue for the Lady Devils all the way until the end of the regular season and into the Region 4AA tournament.

After winning five of their final six regular season games the Lady Devils seemed to be ready to make a run in the region tournament. A 22-point first round victory over Tri-County had Jackson in place to reach the state playoffs. All that stood in their way was a date with Manchester.

Many people favored the Lady Blue Devils in the quarterfinal contest of the region tournament, but by the end of the game it was Jackson avenging the 13-point overtime loss on January 6, to move past the Lady Blue Devils and into the semi-finals of the Region 4AA tournament.

With the victory over Manchester, Jackson clinched a spot in the state playoffs. But before they could go there, they had another date with the two-time defending Region 4AA champions – the Macon County Lady Bulldogs – in the semi-finals of the region tournament.

Macon County completed the sweep over the Lady Devils with a 33-11 victory and for the third consecutive season ended Jackson’s region championship hopes.

The loss didn’t set the team back, though. Regardless of the struggle in the final two region tournament games, the Lady Devils were still heading to the 2006 AA state playoffs.

Saturday, Jackson traveled all the way to Sylvania to play the 25-2 and fourth-ranked team in the state – the Screven County Lady Gamecocks. And according to Head Coach Ronnie Watts the team was going to be in a battle.

“I’ve never seen that many people at a girls basketball game,” said Watts. “I know that a lot of times when the boys and girls play on the same night a huge crowd will form, but for that many to people to be there just for a girl’s game was amazing and very intimidating.”

The intimidating factor showed on the Lady Devils as they were outscored in the first quarter 21-5. But, after that, Jackson gave the fourth-ranked Lady Gamecocks a run for their money. After Screven County opened a 16-point first quarter lead Jackson only allowed the Lady Gamecocks to outscore them by eight points in the final three quarters.

“If you throw away the first quarter we were right there,” explained Watts. “We just missed too many easy and open shots that put us behind early.”

The first quarter indeed put the Lady Devils in a hole they wouldn’t be able to overcome as Screven County pulled away and put an end to the Lady Devils’ season with the 61-38 victory.

“I couldn’t be more proud of these girls,” said Watts. “They never quit all season and I’m excited about the future.”

The future does look promising for the Lady Devils, too. With the merging of players from the Henderson Lady Tigers team joining the mostly freshmen core from this season, the 2006-2007 season could be a breakout season for the Lady Devils.

“We’re going into a tough region next season, but one thing we’ll have next year that we didn’t this season is experience,” described Watts.

The Lady Devils finished the 2005-2006 season 10-20 overall, 10-8 in Region 4AA and for the fifth time in the last six seasons, even though many didn’t expect them to do so, earned a spot in the state playoffs.