Leake advances and seeking sixth straight title
Southern Sports & Travel, By Darron Thomas
The Leake Rebelettes overcame a sluggish first half to defeat 4th ranked Oak Hill 56-32 yesterday in the Class AA State semi-finals at Brookhaven. The win sets up a rematch of last season’s championship game between top ranked Leake and 2nd ranked Brookhaven.
A Jenny Wilbanks trademark basket off the glass got the Rebelettes on the board quickly to start the semi-final game against Oak Hill but the Lady Raiders hung close throughout the opening quarter. Anna Ready canned a 3-pointer from the wing to give Oak Hill an early 3-2 advantage but that would be their only lead as the Leake defense began producing turnovers.
Leake reeled off an 11-1 run with perimeter shooting from senior Shelbi Horn who drained a 3-pointer from the corner and hit a 10 foot jumper at the 3:13 mark to give the five time defending Class AA Champions a 13-4 cushion.
Oak Hill stopped the run with a 3-pointer from Rachel Herndon and managed to stay close as two Herndon free throws finished off the scoring in the opening quarter with Leake maintaining a 17-9 lead.
The combination of Jenny Wilbanks and Shelbi Horn enabled Leake to extend their lead to eleven points at 25-14 as Horn capitalized on an Oak Hill turnover with a lay-in with 1:29 left in the half. Following an Anna Ready bucket that cut the deficit back to single digits at 25-16 Leake finished the half with a Wilbanks turnaround jumper from the baseline and Anna Nowell’s steal and lay-up to push the lead to 29-16 as the quarter ended.
The third quarter belonged to Leake as the Rebelettes exploded with a 12-2 run that was capped off by Shelby Howard’s basket from close range at the 1:34 mark to expand the lead to 41-18.
Shelby Howard’s transition basket, plus one, gave Leake their biggest lead of the night at 52-27 with 4:51 remaining in the game.
Leake (41-0) was led by Jenny Wilbanks who had a game high 25 points, Shelby Howard added 13, Shelbi Horn 9, Anna Nowell 5 and Hannah Peoples 3.
Oak Hill (26-10) was led by Rachel Herndon with 8 points, Tori Ellis added 7, Anna Ready 5, Maegen Ellis and Paige Dawkins 3 each and Lauren Billington, Codi Williams and Katelyn White each had 2 points.
Leake will battle Brookhaven for the Class AA State Championship today at 2:15 pm.
Oak Hill will take on Kirk in the consolation game starting at 1:00 pm this afternoon.

Post Game Comments: Leake Head Coach Doyle Wolverton