Marietta Tops Lassiter, Advances to State Tournament

To say the Lassiter Trojans faced a tall task against second-seeded in the first round of the Region 5-AAAAA girls tournament at Etowah High School would be like saying the Beatles were famous–a huge understatement.

Lassiter entered the game with just one win all season and had lost to Marietta 51-20 and 57-30 in the regular season. And the Trojans had to try to pull the upset without head coach Jon Christopher, serving a standard two-game suspension for being ejected in the next-to-last game of the regular season.

Marietta won 57-40, but Lassiter, under assistant coach Rebecca Edgerton, didn’t go down without a fight.

“I told the girls to leave it all on the court tonight,” Edgerton said. “Everything we’ve taught them, everything we’ve practiced, let’s have fun out there.”

Lassiter played like a team with nothing to lose early, while Marietta came out playing uninspired basketball. The result was a 10-8 Lassiter lead early in the second quarter.

“There’s no reason for us to come out flat,” Marietta head coach Ken Sprague said. “But we had beat this team pretty easily the first two times, and I thought we thought they were just going to lay down and give us the game. But that wasn’t the case. They played very hard.”

Marietta rebounded to take an eight-point halftime lead, but the Blue Devils were still looking over their shoulders early in the third quarter as they led 26-22 with 6:26 remaining.

Marietta scored the next 12 points, and Lassiter just couldn’t muster the offense to keep pace.

The win gives Marietta its ninth consecutive state tournament appearance. The Devils will play Walton on Friday in the region tournament semifinals as the top four 5-AAAAA teams jockey for seeding in the state tournament.

Going to state "is what we expect,” Sprague said. “Hopefully we can play a little bit better on Friday, then come back and play better on Saturday and actually do something in the state tournament.”

Lassiter’s season, with a roster that featured one senior and 11 freshmen and sophomores, comes to a close with a 1-24 record. But despite the team’s travails, Edgerton was upbeat about the future of the program.

“We have to keep these girls positive. We have to keep them encouraged because there’s a future within these girls that we see glimpses of every night out there on the basketball court,” Edgerton said. “And if we keep them enjoying this game and loving the game and loving spending time together and having fun at it, we’ll keep them for four years. And in that fourth year you’re going to see this team in the state championship. I mean, they’re going to be phenomenal, I think.”

Marietta point guard Ciera Echols had 11 points, seven rebounds and six assists to spark the Blue Devils. Courtney Sprague hit four 3-pointers and finished with a game-high 16 points, and Molly Fagan added 13 for Marietta.

Lassiter’s lone senior, Rita Beshara, finished her high school career with a team-high 12 points and six rebounds.