By Alicia Couch Payne

The Buford Lady Wolves dominated a strong Carrollton team with a 62-32 win Wednesday night at the Buford Arena in the second round of the Class AAAAA state playoffs.  The defense for Buford was on point all night and really kept the Lady Trojans from doing much offensively. Carrollton only had five points at the end of the first quarter and 13 at the end of the first half.  Buford’s offense was a little slow to get going but once it did, Carrollton could not do much to stop the points from adding up for Buford.

Point guard Ashyia Willis had a stellar night on and off the court.  She led the Lady Wolves offensively scoring 13 points and had four rebounds.  Off the court, she was serenaded after the game to celebrate her 16th birthday and was also given keys to her first car.

Senior Casey Jones sunk four 3-pointers adding 12 points for Buford.  Another senior Ebony Grant contributed 11 points and had six rebounds while junior Tate Walters scored eight points, had six rebounds and three assists.  Other noteworthy contributions were from Sara Viti, Katelyn Klein, and Tatum Ozment.

“We had a great game,” said Buford Girls Head Coach Gene Durden.  “They played extremely hard. We challenged them to answer on this second round of state tournament and they did.  They did a great job. They took a really good (Carrollton) team and just totally dominated them in every way.”

Buford will take on Veterans at the Buford Arena next week in the third round of the state playoffs.