CENTRE – Spring Garden girls basketball coach Ricky Austin says winning Cherokee County basketball championships never gets old. In his 13 years of coaching, Austin had already earned six county crowns since 2000.

Make that seven.

Behind a solid second-half performance beyond the arc by senior guard Hannah Hutcheson, the top-seeded Lady Panthers defeated Sand Rock 46-30 on Saturday at the new Gadsden State-Cherokee arena.

“I’m just tickled to death,” Austin said. “This is our sixth in a row, and I’m as proud of this one as I am the first one. I think this is something these kids take pride in. I’m proud of them for winning another one.

“It was an honor to be in a position to win one in this new arena. This is a great arena and a great facility.”

Hutcheson connected on four 3-pointers and finished with 16 points to lead the Lady Panthers (21-2) to their latest county championship. She also had three assists.

Jordan Sides added nine points and Tara Mullinax tallied eight points and 16 boards. Kelsey Turner netted seven points and Shelby Malone finished with six points for Spring Garden.

However, the Lady Panthers found the going to be tough early on.

Sand Rock (11-11) used its defense to slow the pace of the game in the first half. The Lady Wildcats built an 8-4 advantage after the first quarter before Spring Garden got warmed up in the second. The Lady Panthers held a 16-9 lead at the break, and then Hutcheson took charge in the second half with her four 3-pointers.

“Kelsey and Jordan knocked down two 3s that got us jumpstarted, and Hannah come in and finished it off with four straight 3s in the second half,” Austin said. “I’m very proud of Hannah. I got very good balance out of her tonight. She was good defensively. She was good offensively. She was just a good point guard tonight.”

Sand Rock coach Lisa Bates called Hutcheson’s hot shooting the difference in the game.

“The second half, we didn’t get out on their shooters as well as we should have,” Bates said. “Hannah hit four 3s and got real hot, and that put it away for them.

“They started hitting shots and we panicked. They were very patient on offense. They drove in, kicked it out and had good shots. We knew what they were going to do, but we just couldn’t stop it. When they start hitting, it’s hard to defend.”

Sand Rock was led by Lauren Bell’s 13 points. Amber Henderson added six points. Tiffany Prince and Lana Bell led the Lady Wildcats underneath the boards, with seven and six rebounds respectively.

Austin said he was proud of how well his defense held the Lady Wildcats in check.

“We just gave them a match-up assignment and went over a couple of tendencies we saw out of them (Sand Rock),” Austin said. “Our girls executed it really, really well, but the bottom line is I can’t get out there and play defense for them. Defense is played with determination, and that’s what I thought showed up in our kids tonight: the will to play defense and the desire to stop their man.”

Junior Varsity Girls County Championship

Sand Rock 33, Cherokee County 25 – Sand Rock’s Logan Smith led all scorers with 13 points to help the Lady Wildcats earn the Cherokee County Junior High Girls championship on Saturday.

Erica Wyatt added nine points and Marlee Bell rang for seven points.

Karisa McEwen led the Lady Warriors with 11 points. Allyson Curry had five points and Kaitlyn Stokes finished with four points.

Cherokee County held a 20-19 lead at the end of three quarters, but Sand Rock outscored the Lady Warriors 13-6 in the fourth for the final.