Sale Creek's Hill passes 1,000 five ways

Friday, January 1, 1904

photo Sale Creek's Erin Hill tries to drive against Van Buren County's Shelby Christian (44) and Allison McCoy (33) in their District 6-A championship game Monday in Sale Creek.
photo Sale Creek basketball player Erin Hill happens to wear No. 5 on her jersey, and in basketball and volleyball she has surpassed 1,000 in five career stat categories.

Last Friday in Sale Creek's girls' quarterfinal victory in the Region 3-A basketball tournament, Erin Hill managed a unique accomplishment. Forget about a triple-double. How about a career quintuple-quadruple.

Hill, who already had topped the 1,000-point mark in her high school career, needed eight rebounds going into the game to get to 1,000 in that category, which she did. She also surpassed 1,000 kills, digs and assists in volleyball.

"You always hope something like that can actually happen," Hill said. "It felt really good when I finally did it."

Hill's mother, Debbie, is her head coach in both sports and Erin said her older sister, Shelby -- also a 1,000-point scorer in basketball at Sale Creek -- has been an inspiration. Not many college basketball offers came her way, but that was likely because she had made it known early on she wanted to continue in volleyball. She has signed with Lee University.

"I'm going to miss it," Erin said of her basketball career, which came to an end with a 62-58 home loss to Silverdale Baptist Academy in one of Monday's semifinals. "I've been playing it since I was 4 years old, and my parents have been my coaches. It will always be part of my life."

Two left in Georgia

The Calhoun and Gordon Lee girls are the last remaining hopes for a state basketball championship in northwestern Georgia, and those teams can move to the quarterfinals in their respective classifications tonight.

Calhoun (26-1), coming off its best regular season in history, will host multiple state-title winner and top-ranked Wesleyan tonight at 6 in a Class AA quarterfinal at Calhoun Middle School. Also at 6, Gordon Lee (22-7) will host upset-minded Seminole County in the Class A public school playoffs.

Calhoun's challenge is particularly tough. Wesleyan's Lady Wolves (25-4) won by 56 and 48 points in the first two rounds and are favored to add to their state-title collection, which stands at five in a row and nine in the last 11 seasons.

"They present several challenges," Calhoun coach Jerry Pruett said. "The biggest is handling their pressure. A lot of teams get put out quickly because they can't handle it. We match up well with them athletically, but can we handle the pressure?"

The winner plays the Thomasville/Bleckley County survivor Friday at Georgia College in Milledgeville.

Gordon Lee is playing a Seminole County team that just upset third-seeded Marion County. The south Georgia team, which will travel nearly six hours today, will match up-tempo styles with Lester Galyon's Lady Trojans. The winner of that game plays the winner of the Towns County/Claxton game Friday at Fort Valley State.