JACKSON — The Newton Lady Tigers are the Class 2A champions again.
The Lady Tigers used a suffocating defense and dominated West Lincoln from the beginning to take a 39-33 win over the Lady Bears and claim their third state title for the girls program.
The Lady Tigers finish the season with a 29-2 record for second-year coach Perry Fletcher, who won his first-ever state championship after appearing in the title game four other times.
“It’s just amazing, it’s so surreal,” Fletcher said. “I’m just grateful. All the glory goes to God. We’ve been saying all year long that it’s our honor to play for God’s glory and to be able to cap this season with a state championship, we give it all back to him. It’s been him the whole time.”
Newton led from the beginning as the Lady Tigers opened the game by outscoring West Lincoln 10-2 and led 10-4 at the end of the first period.
“Coach Stribling did a good job of breaking down film and teaching them discipline and being patient on offense,” Fletcher said. “They set a lot of screens and we are small. So it worked to our favor, we were able to switch every screen. That worked to our advantage.”
West Lincoln pulled within six at 15-10 with 5:12 left in the first half before Newton finished off the half with a 5-1 run to lead 21-11 at the half.
With Myja McNichols on the bench to start the second half, West Lincoln outscored Newton 7-2 to cut the lead to 23-18 with 4:00 left in the third. But a big three-pointer by Zia Shields ended that run and Newton led 32-25 at the end of the third.
The Lady Tigers led by as many as 11 points in the fourth and withstood a late run by West Lincoln as they held on to take the six-point win.
“We shot horrible from the free throw line and that’s a credit to nerves,” Fletcher said. “The game got a little big for us at moments and the kids weren’t focused and rushing their shots. We were fortunate enough that our defense was strong enough that the free throws didn’t come back to bite us.”
Nia McCalphia, who was named the Most Valuable Player of the title game, led Newton with 12 points and had four steals and three assists.
“McCalphia has been McCalphia all season long,” Fletcher said. “Whatever we needed, she got it. If we needed a defensive stop, she got it. She’s the leader of our press, she’s our point guard. She can make it happen. She can get down and nobody can really trap her. She has been big for us all season. On a stage like this, she has what you can’t coach. Something on the inside and in games like this, she lives for those moments.”
Ja’Leah Hickman had 10 points, five rebounds and four steals while Myja McNichol added eight points. Zia Shields also had six points and four rebounds.
