Jays girls basketball head coach Jorey Diamond is trying to keep things as normal as possible for the Lady Royals leading up to Friday’s FHSAA Rural state championship game against Williston.
Easier said than done, as Jay didn’t go back home after its 53-39 win over Hilliard at UNF Arena in Jacksonville in the state semifinals on Feb. 24. Instead, the team is staying at a hotel on the First Coast for the rest of the week leading into the title game as it looks for its first state championship since 1996.
“You don’t want your kids laying around the hotel too much, sleeping late, doing those types of things,” Diamond said. “You want them to get up at a decent hour in the morning and get them functioning and get them in a routine, let them have the meals they usually have during the day and that kind of thing. We’ve tried to keep it as close to our routine as they would have at school. I know that’s not really possible all the way, but I think we’ve done a good job of trying to keep them in a routine.”
Diamond let the Lady Royals sleep in after what he called a “mentally straining” Tuesday. On Wednesday they were heading to Orange Park High School to practice in the afternoon, then having a team dinner.
The plan Thursday is to practice around 10 a.m., spend some time at a mall then another team dinner.
Friday is like any other game day, except Jay will be playing for its first state championship since 1996. The Lady Royals (25-4) will do a morning shootaround before tipping off against Williston (21-2) at 5 p.m. CT.
After Tuesday’s whirlwind, Diamond has a team focused on the next task.
“They got up this morning and I think they’ve flipped the script,” Diamond said. “They’ve had a good time for 24 hours, enjoyed it, enjoyed the pats on the back from the community. I think now they know we have a good task in front of us and we’re going to have to have a good two days of practice to get ready.”
The road back to the state title game
In the state semifinals, Jay played like a team that had gotten the regional final monkey off its back. The Lady Royals had lost in the regional finals three years in a row before advancing to their first Final Four since 1998 this season.
They knew Chipley in the regional finals would be a grind-it-out game because of the Tigers tough defense. Against Hilliard in the next round, senior Hattie Locklin’s seven-point first quarter allowed the rest of her teammates to settle in.
Jay jumped out to a 10-2 lead early in the first quarter, then went on a 12-0 second quarter run after Hilliard tied the game at 16. The Lady Royals led by as many as 21 points in the fourth quarter.
Locklin finished with 16 points and nine rebounds and junior point guard Presley Hawthorne added 15 points and seven assists. Junior Aubreigh Nelson added 12 points.
“I think Hattie having a good quarter early in the game and getting us some good easy shots at the basket, I think that really calmed us down and sort of settled us down,” Diamond said. “And we realized ‘hey we can do this’ and it got those nerves out quick.”
One game at a time, one more time
On Friday, Jay will face another team looking for a big breakthrough. Williston is playing in its first state championship game and beat defending state champion Wildwood in both the Rural District 7 championship and Region 4 championship. The Red Devils then held off a late Blountstown rally in the state semifinals, winning 43-41 to advance to the state championship.
Diamond watched the Williston-Blountstown semifinal and saw an athletic Red Devils squad that likes to play fast, controlling the tempo to create chaos. He knows Jay has its hands full, but also knows the Lady Royals have seen all different kinds of styles in their march to this moment.
All year, Jay has wanted to get to this game. It’s only started thinking about it now. The Lady Royals have had a ‘one game at a time’ mantra all season. However, they didn’t truly start playing like it until after a 55-36 loss at L.E.A.D Academy on Jan. 2.
Jay had some tough conversations within the team after that loss, emphasizing they had to focus solely on the present if they wanted to achieve their goals. Diamond continues to remind them of this before every game. Don’t worry about the next game, just the one in front of you.
Seventeen straight wins later, the Lady Royals are now fully focused on one last win to achieve their ultimate goal.
“When we came back from Christmas, there was just this new feeling of we’re all pulling in one direction and we’re all pulling for each other,” Diamond said. “And I think that’s shown by the way we play on the court.”
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Jay girls basketball aims for first state title since 1996
Reporting by Justin Fitzgerald, Pensacola News Journal / Pensacola News Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
