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Every trip to the State Finals is special, even when you’re a child watching your mom coach in the state championship game.
Shila Marks remembers it all too well.
“My mom was coaching here, when she was at Clements, and she made it here,” the Lauderdale County star said after a semifinal win on Tuesday. “It’s always just been one of my biggest goals in life, and we actually have a picture at home of me with my mom’s state championship. I just look to it.
“I look at that little girl and what she’s worked for. It’s really special, especially after how we’ve come up short the last four or five years.”
Marks and Class 3A No. 1 Lauderdale County’s quest to bring home a Class 3A title began in dominant fashion on Tuesday with a 58-42 win over No. 4 T.R. Miller.
Lauderdale County is looking for its first state title since 2016.
“This is probably the grittiest bunch we’ve had, or maybe ever at Lauderdale County,” coach Clara Clemons said. “They are gritty, they don’t mind getting on the floor, they don’t mind doing the dirty work, the stuff that you don’t really see on the stat sheet; they don’t mind. Armani, you’re probably not going to see her help name a lot on the stat sheet, but look what she did out there today, as far as defensive goes.
“I can say the same thing with Sarah and Ansley on the defensive end too. You’re not going to see it on the stat sheet, but they don’t mind that. They’re a team. They don’t care who does what, who scores what; they’re very close team.”
Lauderdale County bolted out to an 18-9 lead after the first quarter, highlighted by a buzzer-beating 3-point basket by Emery Owens to cap off the quarter.
Marks closed out the game with a dominant performance, piling up 19 of her 23 points in the second half as she went 9-for-11 from the field and a perfect 4-for-4 from the free throw line.
While Marks led the scoring, Clemons said the key to the game would be limiting the opposition’s rebounds; T.R. Miller finished with 27, as Armani Thomas played stout defense in the win.
“Our game plan was the sag in, they want to take a contested outside shot, that’s what we were going to give them, and then we had to box out,” the coach said. “I don’t know if y’all know as much stats about them, but they probably average about 20 something offensive rebounds. I know we held them to two or three in the first half, and I don’t know what we go before the game, but great job keeping them off the boards, offensive boards.”
T.R. Miller’s Jadin Curry finished with 15 points and 12 rebounds to lead the team in both categories, while Lyrik Hales added 8 points.
“Let’s tip our hat to Lauderdale County, that is a really good basketball team,” T.R. Miller coach Lamonyn Burney said. “To make it here for my girls, they lost in the championship here last year, and I took over in August so it was a whole different playing style.
“Same playing style in the defensive end, offensive end, we came in and took few new things and a few wrinkles here and there, and I just thank all 15 of the girls in the locker room room for buying me into my system and accepting me and my family and everything.”
Star of the game: Marks shined on offense for Lauderdale County, especially in the second half.
Stat sheet: Lauderdale County — Armani Thomas scored 9 points and dished out 4 assists, while Sarah Smith totaled 6 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists; both the rebounds and assists led the Tigers. Ansley Shelton scored 7 points and logged 3 assists. T.R. Miller — Meg Fountain finished with 7 points and two rebounds, while Natasia Reed and Makinley Johnson each had 4 points in the loss. Hails finished with 4 rebounds, which was second on the team.
By the numbers: Lauderdale County shot 24-for-47 from the field and knocked down 4 3-point baskets. They dished out 18 assists as a team, totaled 24 rebounds and logged 19 steals. T.R. Miller logged 2 blocks and 7 steals, outrebounding Lauderdale County 27-24. T.R. Miller shot 14-for-34 as a team and 10-for-16 from the free throw line.
Did you know? Lauderdale County has won 13 girls’ basketball state championships (1987, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1998, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016), which is the most in AHSAA history for one program.
They said it: “You’ll think that the coach comes in and makes this decision, does this and that; I’ve learned a lot from these girls. Going on year seven, of course, year four as a head coach, but I’ve learned a lot from them that I’ll take in the years to come. They’ve been great to me, and we’re just going to take this stepping stone forward and try to be here again at the same time next year. I’ve got Jadin coming back with me, I’ve got her sister Destinee Curry, number 14, coming back. We have a pretty good group coming back, so hopefully, the good Lord will let us make no appearance here again next year.” — T.R. Miller coach Lamonyn Burney on his group.
“A lot of people look like it is a drought, ‘Oh, you haven’t been there so long, but it takes a lot and lot goes into and getting here: sometimes you get here and sometimes you don’t. Everything falls the right way sometimes, and sometimes it doesn’t. Like I said, this is our goal, and I think our fans and communities are a little spoiled. They expect us to be here every single year, and we haven’t so everybody’s all up in arms because we hadn’t been here since 2016. But, we’re here now, so we’re going to try to win it all all right now.” — Lauderdale County coach Clara Clemons on her program.
“They did a really good job at it. Yeah, we knew going into the game now that they were probably going to put one of their best defenders on me and try and take me away from the game. But I mean, how smart on their end, we left it on the floor. I tip my hat to them.” — T.R. Miller’s Meg Fountain on the game.
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