Powerhouse North Augusta girls end Lower Richland’s title game bid
Lower Richland girls basketball came up short of ending its championship appearance drought.
North Augusta built a big first-half lead and were able to hold off the Diamond Hornets’ second-half comeback for a 42-34 win in the Class 4A Lower State championship Monday at the Florence Center.
The Yellow Jackets advance to their seventh state championship game since 2017 and face Westside at 2 p.m. Friday.
The loss ends Lower Richland’s season at 25-2 and its first defeat against an opponent from South Carolina. The 25 victories are the most for the program since 2014.
“Twenty wins, especially in our region and in 4A basketball is very difficult,” Lower Richland coach Aaron Lucas said. “We are certainly disappointed in the outcome. We didn’t come down here just to play the game. We came here to win the game and play on Friday. But it is basketball. You learn from it and hopefully it will be motivation to start our offseason program.”
The Diamond Hornets were held to a season-low in points. The 34 points scored were the lowest since scoring 29 in last year’s third round loss to eventual state champion Camden.
Lower Richland was done in by a slow start in the first half and then missed opportunities down the stretch.
The Diamond Hornets trailed the entire game but cut the lead to 25-23 on Chi’Nya Isaac’s free throws with 58.5 seconds left in the third quarter. Isaac, the team’s leading scorer was held to just eight points and she missed several minutes in the fourth quarter with a knee injury.
The Yellow Jackets answered with a 7-0 over the next three minutes and Knedi Wright’s basket gave them a 32-23 lead.
Lower Richland got within 37-32 with 2:13 and then missed a pair of easy shots on their next two possessions.
“Games like this come down to small things. Defense and rebounding,” Lucas said. “In that first half, you can’t build the deficit in these types of environment against a good team. This is the matchup we had anticipated all year and came down to a fight and that is all you can ask for. We played as hard as we can. Hats off to them (North Augusta.)
Wright and Celena Grant each had 13 points for North Augusta (29-1), whose lone loss this season came against Butler (Ga.) on Dec. 10. The Yellow Jackets lost in the third round last year to Westside.
“We worked hard, came up short last year and were very determined to get back to the championship game. I’m just so emotional right now,” NA coach Al Young said.
Jhnai Sumter led Lower Richland with nine points and Mikayla Foster had eight. Foster and Sumter will be two of the team’s key returnees next season.
This story was originally published March 3, 2025 at 5:37 PM.
