Lady Panthers dynasty-mite

DULUTH — The chant wasn’t nearly as loud as the ones Southwest DeKalb supporters would fill the Arena at Gwinnett Center with a couple hours later, but even before Friday’s Class 4A state championship game against Northwest Whitfield, Lady Panthers fans dared to dream of another big finish.

From the stands as the state finalists warmed up on the court below: “Three-peat!”

Kathy Richey-Walton, South-west’s coach for eight seasons, took a decidedly more low-key approach in her quest to lead the Lady Panthers to a third consecutive state title.

“Our motto for the last three years has been, ‘The road to the rising dynasty,’” said Richey-Walton, who’s 182-53 since taking over the Lady Panthers. “We never shared that with anybody. I told them to stay humble, don’t say anything about it, it’s just among us. Then once you achieve it, you can tell people you had a goal that you achieved.”

So it’s not surprising that Richey-Walton had no idea that T-shirts commemorating the trio of crowns would be distributed on the Southwest bench in the final moments of the Lady Panthers’ 65-45 victory.

“I had nothing to do with that,” Richey-Walton said. “That was somebody else.”

But Richey-Walton had enough championship experience to open an umbrella as she headed into the locker room, where a celebratory water cooler shower awaited her.

A fast start on Friday helped lock up a dominant run for senior-laden Southwest, which became the third girls team to win three straight state titles in 4A since that classification’s introduction in the 1978-79 season to the Georgia High School Association, which has been awarding girls basketball championships since 1945.

Lowndes started a four-year run of championships from 1977-80 with two 3A titles before winning the last two in 4A and St. Pius X won three of four titles from 2004 to 2007, but only Baldwin (1986-88) and Morrow (1989-91) had made it three in a row in 4A alone prior to the Lady Panthers.

Following Southwest’s semifinal victory against Forest Park on Wednesday, Richey-Walton mentioned her team’s inconsistency over the course of the season and wondered aloud “which team” would show up in the title matchup. But the Lady Panthers lessened those worries by building a 23-4 lead during the first 6 minutes of the game.

That was a sign of progress between the ears, said Southwest senior Kayla Lewis, a University of Florida signee who scored 14 of her 20 points in the first quarter.

“We went through our same routine, but it’s more mental than it is physical, our inconsistency,” Lewis said. “I think today everybody got on the same page and we knew we could do something really special and make history ...”

For the Lady Panthers, the game plan included staying as dedicated as always to defense, with extra-physical play geared toward Northwest posts Quaneisha McCurty and Christy Robinson, who were held to 14 points after combining for 29 in a semifinal victory against Dutchtown on Wednesday.

“Sometimes we were supposed to swing it,” Robinson said, “and they were denying the girl at the top of the key and we couldn’t even swing the ball to run the offense and cut.”

Southwest also had no plans to let Lady Bruins sharpshooter Jordi Cook get a long look through her scope. The senior guard made seven 3-pointers in a 27-point performance against Dutchtown, but was given extra attention by the Lady Panthers’ Chancie Dunn and limited to 10 points — still the best among Lady Bruins — on Friday.

“She was on me the whole time,” Cook said.

Dunn, who has signed with Clemson, finished with 19 points after erupting for 10 in the third quarter. But she was just as proud of what she did to limit the Lady Bruins’ scoring opportunities.

“I love defense,” she said.

Dunn and her teammates also love the Arena at Gwinnett Center, where they’ve won all of their state titles and established Southwest as one of Georgia’s reigning powers in girls high school basketball. They’ll leave behind a legacy few can challenge.

“We have eight seniors and we started out on JV,” Dunn said. “We won a JV championship, then we went to varsity our 10th grade year, we won state on varsity won in 11th grade, won it again in 12th grade. So we have won our last game of every season.”

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