Good Hope’s Ava McSwain was exactly where she needed to be.

Standing in the paint and working the press with her teammates on back-to-back in-bounds plays, McSwain was on the receiving end of two turnovers and ignited a game-changing run on consecutive baskets to power the top-ranked Raiders to a 63-35 victory over T.R. Miller in Friday’s Class 4A state championship game at the BJCC’s Legacy Arena in Birmingham.

Good Hope (33-2) not only wins the first state title in program history in its fourth trip to the State Finals, but captures the first state championship of any sport in school history.

“To say it’s a special group would be an understatement,” Good Hope coach Justin Aby said. “I don’t even know what I’m going to do next year. It’s a great group of girls who bought in from Day One. Proud to see them reach this goal and it’s great for the community of Good Hope.”

Bailey Tetro ripped the lid off as she scored 6 straight points to open the game and gave the Raiders a 9-5 lead before T.R. Miller’s Jadin Curry scored the final two buckets to knot the score at 9-all entering the second quarter.

The Tigers completed a 10-0 run between the first and second periods and took a 15-9 lead on back-to-back jumpers from Meg Fountain and Serenity Mitchell. Tetro jumpstarted a 15-1 run on a pair of free throws almost midway through the quarter and powered the Raiders ahead to a 10-point advantage on a pair of layups – plus an and-1 opportunity on the first make – followed by a 3-pointer from Ivey Maddox.

Mitchell scored the final bucket of the half to cut the Good Hope lead to 27-19 entering the halftime break.

T.R. Miller (26-4) narrowed the lead to 6 points on a Bethany Simmons layup to open the second half, but turned the ball over twice on in-bounds plays with McSwain scoring each time off a quick pass from a teammate.

“Coach Aby was talking to me at halftime and it got me fired up,” McSwain said. “I had not started off great and wanted to start helping my team out to win this game.”

Maddox capped a 9-0 run on a 3-pointer and the Raiders hit an 8-0 run following a bucket from Fountain, surging to a 44-23 lead with 2:24 left in the third period, and entered the final quarter with a 48-25 advantage after a 4-0 spurt from Maddox and Charly Johnson to end the period.

The Raiders never let up in the final quarter and put the finishing touches on their title run with a final 8-0 run that was punctuated by a 3-pointer from Lucie Adams.

Star of the game: Bailey Tetro. The senior guard finished with 17 points on 6-of-11 shooting and added 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 7 steals. She scored the first 6 points of the game and ignited an 8-0 run late in the second period to give the Raiders a double-digit lead at halftime.

Stat sheet: Good Hope – Maddox led the Raiders with a game-high 20 points, with 5 rebounds and 2 steals, and McSwain had 12 points and 2 boards. Heather Tetro did not score, but contributed 2 assists and 3 steals, while Johnson added 8 points and 8 rebounds. Lillie McCluskey and Lucie Adams had 3 points each as they bookended the final period on long-range shots. T.R. Miller – Curry posted a double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds and Fountain had 10 points, 4 rebounds and 2 blocks. Mitchell and Natasia Reed had 4 points each.

By the numbers: The Raiders shot 43.6 percent overall and 10-of-13 at the foul line while holding T.R. Miller to 31.3 percent from the field. The Tigers were plus-7 on the glass, but gave up 25 turnovers, resulting in 31 points for Good Hope.

All-Tournament Team: Bailey Tetro was named MVP and teammates McSwain and Maddox were named to the All-Tournament Team, along with T.R. Miller’s Curry and Fountain and Prattville Christian’s Avery Rogers.

Did you know? T.R. Miller coach Ronald Jackson announced his retirement before the end of the season and is now officially retired following a 41-year Hall of Fame career. He won four titles with T.R. Miller (1995, 1996, 2002 and 2009) and one with Monroe County (1985) and finishes with a 1,048-343 combined boys’ and girls’ coaching record for his career.

“He puts so much that people don’t see into us,” Fountain said. “That’s the most upsetting thing. We wanted it for him. I can honestly say we left it all on the floor tonight.”

Coachspeak: “It’s not just what you see on the floor. Our community support had been awesome. As far as these girls up here and in the locker room, it’s a special group, it really is.” – Good Hope’s Aby

“They had a little more depth than we did. It’s tough to go out and play 32 minutes with the kind of players we played against tonight and come out victorious. I’m just as proud of them as if we’d won the ball game.” – T.R. Miller’s Jackson

They said it: “I think we started out with a little bit of nerves, I know I did. We’re used to having fast starts and being on top by the end of the first quarter. We just needed to settle down and get in our groove, and we did that. Our defense is what got us going.” – Bailey Tetro

“We don’t get down. We have so much trust in each other when we go out there and play. It shocked us at first, but we trusted each other. Once we get going, there’s no looking back for us.” – Heather Tetro

“We got into halftime and coach Aby was fired up with us not rebounding. He challenged us to go out there and respond. We went out there and hopped on them. Never looked back.” – Ivey Maddox

“We came out a little nervous but we got back out there and started our press. We got some steals and it upped the momentum.” – Ava McSwain