If you’ve ever seen how a swarm of yellow jackets react after their nest has been infringed upon by a lawn mower, you have an idea of the way the Buford girls play basketball.
The Wolves play an all-out brand of basketball that typically leaves the opposition withered and waving a white flag long before the 32 minutes have ticked off the scoreboard. It’s a wall-to-wall nonstop brand of orchestrated mayhem that has brought the school eight state championships and keeps them alive today against teams that are taller and more experienced.
“When you pounce on them and pounce on them, they get so tired they just give up,” junior Lydia Ledford said. “Just seeing that, I want to be a part of this program, and I want to keep doing this because it’s a great feeling to be that kind of dog.”
Credit: Stan Awtrey
Credit: Stan Awtrey
Buford, ranked No. 5, improved to 24-2 with a 83-36 win over Chapel Hill in the first round of the Class 6A playoffs. The Wolves overwhelmed the visitors 24-7 in the first quarter, led 47-22 at halftime and were up 67-29, a margin that caused the final period to be shortened to six minutes.
Coach Gene Durden’s teams have been playing the same style — he called it “controlled chaos” — since he began his career as a head coach 35 years ago at Dade County in the farthest corner of Northwest Georgia. He coached there for 14 years, took 13 teams to the playoffs and three to the title game. Durden has spent the past 20 years at Buford and won 632 and state titles in 2009-11, 2015, 1017-20.
But there’s a method to the all-out style that Buford plays, one that almost any team could adopt, but few are willing to do.
“It’s not easy to play that way. It takes a commitment,” Durden said. “We want to have a commitment out of 10 kids if we can because basically what we’re going to try to do is wear you down, both physically and mentally. That’s why we to make condition and mental toughness a part of the game.”
Credit: Stan Awtrey
Credit: Stan Awtrey
The Wolves pressure the ball in the backcourt, which makes it tough to even bring it inbounds and forces the opposition to play a half-court game – if they even get set up on the offensive end. Buford scores a lot of points when the ball is slapped away for a layup or short jumper.
“I wouldn’t want to be on any other team just because of that,” Ledford said. “I think we beat teams, and we have a chance with every single team we play, because of how hard we play. That keeps us in any game because of how tough we are and how resilient we are.”
This is not one of Buford’s most experienced teams. The Wolves lost all-state guard Ava Watson, now playing at Ohio State, and have only three seniors on the roster. Ledford, a junior, has stepped up to take a big leadership role, along with sophomore Emiah Fields.
“In some phases we’ve gotten better,” Durden said. “We’re still trying to put all the pieces together. We had some big holes that we’re trying to fill, but to have the youth we have on this team and for the kids to jump into different roles, this has been a good season.”
Credit: Stan Awtrey
Credit: Stan Awtrey
But playing a hard-nosed brand of basketball isn’t always appealing, especially for players who are used to a run-and-shoot style. It’s made it difficult for the Wolves to fill a full roster on the non-varsity level.
“It’s hard than ever,” Durden said. “It’s about the way society is today, as far as ‘it’s about me.’ The way we play, the team is our ‘superstar’ and everybody has to sacrifice and everybody has to play their role and do things we ask them to do. We’ve had great players that if you put them in other systems, they would have averaged a lot more points, but that’s been the key to our success and our sustained success over so many years.”
Buford will host Etowah (21-8) in the second round at 5:30 p.m. Friday. Etowah beat Colquitt County 46-40 in the opener.
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