GHSA TOC Championship: No. 1 Westlake vs. No. 2 Buford

There are a lot of items on GHSA basketball fans’ wish lists. One that we may never see is a tournament of champions. All eight classification champs grouped together and seeded or even paired at random to set up a bracket to determine the overall champion of the state. With no basketball being played currently, why not breakdown some hypothetical matchups in this new series and let the fan vote determine who will advance to the next round? We will provide a preview, a thoughtful prediction and let you – the fans – decide the fate of each game. <hr /> <h2><strong>No. 1 Westlake vs. No. 2 Buford</strong></h2> <span style="font-size: 1rem">The two top-seeded teams heading into the fictional GHSA Tournament of Champions will go to war for the mythical title. No. 1 Westlake steamrolled No. 4 Holy Innocents’ 82 percent to 18 while No. 2 Buford took care of No. 3 Forest Park by winning 64 percent of the vote.</span> Though the two juggernauts didn’t play one another this season, they are somewhat familiar with each other as the Wolves hosted the Lions in a last second game last year. Westlake pulled away to win 58-51, but actually trailed 36-24 at the half and 42-41 after three quarters. The Buford press caused a handful of turnovers and the Wolves were locked in from deep. Westlake rallied behind [player_tooltip player_id="118095" first="Raven" last="Johnson"] and [player_tooltip player_id="118057" first="Lydia" last="Freeman"]. Buford had no answer for the 6-foot-5 Freeman inside as the Georgia Southern-signee dumped in 17 points, 13 rebounds and 5 blocks. Johnson scored eight of her game-high 23 points in the fourth to go along with 7 rebounds, 1 assist, 4 steals and 2 blocks. [player_tooltip player_id="152624" first="Blair" last="Wallis"] had 10 points for the Wolves while Tatum Ozment had 7. So, what would happen if the teams ran it back this year? Buford would have to compete without ’19 Casey Jones who hit four threes and glue-girl ’19 Ebony Grant who added 6 points and 6 rebounds. All of Westlake’s key contributors are back including the addition of [player_tooltip player_id="118146" first="Ta’Niya" last="Latson"], which gives the offense a shot in the arm. Adding Latson helped the Lions play even faster this year which could potentially help out Buford in a rematch. Latson led the Lions in scoring at 16.3 points but Westlake saw Freeman’s numbers drop as she played three less minutes per game went from 14.1 points, 6.9 rebounds and 1.3 blocks to 8.9 points and 5.5 rebounds per game. If Freeman isn’t on the floor as much, she can’t hurt Buford as much as she did last year plus the Wolves have more size this go-round with 6-foot Tamori Plantin moving in from GAC. Furman-signee [player_tooltip player_id="118069" first="Tate" last="Walters"] had 6 points, 3 rebounds and 3 steals in last year’s matchup and would be the focal point in the balanced Buford offense this year. Another year of seasoning for [player_tooltip player_id="148891" first="Ashyia" last="Willis"] and Wallis would give the Wolves great poise but Westlake still has a plethora of weapons in ETSU-signee Carylse Hooks and Virginia Tech-commit [player_tooltip player_id="118121" first="Brianna" last="Turnage"] who gets better and better on offense. The interior defense of Buford and the ball security of Westlake are the two biggest factors to watch. If the Wolves can’t turnover the Lions with their press, they will be in trouble. Buford scored 34 points off turnovers in their 66-63 Class 5A Championship over Kell. Westlake had 18 fast break points and 25 points off turnovers in the 7A title game, a 72-53 drubbing of Collins Hill. <em>Vote below &amp; on Twitter to decide who wins the GHSA Tournament of Champions Championship. Voting ends on 4/30</em> https://poll.fm/10540422 &nbsp;