State Champs! Jacobs’ big night powers Heathwood Hall girls to SCISA basketball title

Chapel Fowler
·2 min read

The Heathwood Hall girls basketball team had two legends in the building for Friday night’s SCISA Class 4A state championship game.

Now they have a third: Lauren Jacobs.

Jacobs, a sophomore point guard, was lights out and scored 28 points as Heathwood routed Northwood Academy, 79-49, to win its fourth all-time SCISA state championship and first since 2014.

Her performance came with coach Brionna Dickerson-Zimmerman, Heathwood’s all-time leading scorer, roaming the sidelines and WNBA star A’ja Wilson, the centerpiece of Heathwood’s last state title, cheering on from the bleachers at the Sumter Civic Center.

Heathwood (26-1), the No. 1 seed in SCISA’s upper bracket, also got a big game from sophomore guard Sabreya Monsanto (15 points) to get past Northwood (20-8), which was appearing in its seventh state championship game over the last nine years.

The Highlanders led 25-15 after one quarter, 53-26 after two quarters and 68-32 after three quarters, using a relentless combination of full-court press defense and fast-break defense to run wild on Northwood for layup after layup (with many of those coming from Jacobs).

Heathwood, which had previously blown out Augusta Christian and First Baptist in SCISA playoff games, finished the 2022-23 season on a 12-game win streak. Its only loss all season came in a non-conference game to a team from Australia.

Northwood got out to an 8-0 lead in the first quarter, but Heathwood rapidly erased that deficit with an 18-0 run of its own.

The Highlanders never trailed again. They were especially dominant in a 28-point second quarter that put Heathwood up 27 points at halftime.

Heathwood had to wait nine years for its first state championship since Wilson’s team won it all in 2014, but that might not be the case going forward.

Heathwood graduates two senior starters in Emily Frick and Virginia Bowers, but Jacobs, Monsanto and Camillea Gore will all return as starting juniors with state championship experience.

The Highlanders will also return four bench players including sophomore guard Sydney Cunningham (6 points) and freshman guard Amariea Spriggs (5 points).