The Hebron girls withstood Wesleyan’s second half free throw barrage and captured its second straight Class AAA state championship with a 62-60 win at the Macon Coliseum on Friday. The Lions built a 13-8 lead at the end of the first quarter that swelled to 32-20 at the half. Hebron started the second half with an 11-0 run and led 43-20 with under five minutes to go in the third quarter and were on the verge of a blowout when play seemed to stop every few seconds. Various Lions were whistled for fouls at different points in the remaining moments of the third quarter. Wesleyan cut the lead to 12 heading into the fourth. The teams mostly exchanged baskets throughout the fourth quarter. Wesleyan would cut the lead to seven and Hebron would increase it back to double digits. With 44.9 seconds remaining in the game, Hebron held a 60-50 lead. Poor ball management led to two Hebron turnovers and back to back Wesleyan threes. With 6.8 seconds remaining and Hebron holding a 62-56 lead, Amiya Porter was whistled for a foul a Wesleyan attempted a three pointer. After confusion from Hebron’s bench on how many fouls Porter had, she was subbed out but not before the team received a technical for “failing to send a sub to the scorer’s table quickly enough. This gave Wesleyan a total of five free throw attempts with the clock stopped and possession of the ball. Wesleyan made four of its five free throw attempts cutting the lead to 62-60 after the game had appeared to be out of reach. Wesleyan inbounded the ball and Chit Chat Wright started to dribble toward the basket. Aubrey Beckham knocked the ball away costing Wesleyan valuable time. Wright retrieved the ball and Beckham defended her closely. Wright passed the ball toward the middle of the court as time expired. Wesleyan didn’t get a shot off and Hebron claimed its second straight Class AAA title and third state championship in the last four years. Danielle Osho led Hebron with a double-double performance, scoring 14 points while pulling down 15 rebounds. Aubrey Beckham finished with 15 points while Mia James scored nine. Kerra Butler and Nicky Daniel each scored eight for the Lions while Aniya Moodie chipped in five. Hebron ends this portion of the season with a 30-2 record while Wesleyan’s season comes to a close with a record of 27-4. This latest state title is the 16th in Coach Azar’s career and her third at Hebron in just her fifth season at the school. Azar has lead her teams to 22 state championship game appearances since 2001, winning 16 titles with six runner up finishes. Only two of her teams failed to make the state championship game during that span. Her 2003 team lost in the quarterfinals and her 2020 team was knocked out in the semifinals. The season isn’t exactly over for the Lions who last week moved up to No. 9 in the country in latest ESPN rankings and No. 10 in the most recent MaxPrep rankings. Hebron has been invited to participate in two prestigious national tournaments, one in New York and the other in Indianapolis. These tournaments feature the a small, select group of the top teams in the nation. Where and when the Lions land will be announced soon. But in the mean time, big congratulations to these girls.
HEBRON LIONS
2024 Class AAA Champions