Northview Girls Enjoying Best Basketball Season in School History

By Mike Blum

During its first 14 seasons fielding a varsity girls basketball team, the Northview Lady Titans made just three state playoff appearances and advanced beyond the first round just once, that coming in 2011.

Last year’s team went 16-13 and lost its opener at state. But with an influx of young talent, the 2016-17 squad has gone where no Northview basketball team has gone before.

In the most recent state high school poll released by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Lady Titans were ranked first in Class 6A, the first time in school history the school has had a top-ranked team in basketball.

“It’s been great. Everybody is really excited,” Northview head coach Chris Yarbrough said after a tightly- contested 66-58 victory Jan. 31 at Alpharetta, the second place team in Region 7-AAAAAA behind the Lady Titans.

With one game left in the regular season, Northview is 15-0 in the region and 21-3 overall, and will begin play in the region tournament Feb. 8 at Johns Creek.

The Lady Titans are a young team without a great deal of depth, with four of the seven players in their main rotation including three sophomores and a freshman. Northview has only one senior in the starting lineup, with senior Shannon Titus leading the team in scoring, assists and steals as well as providing invaluable leadership on the floor.

“Shannon has been amazing,” Yarbrough said. “It’s not just her scoring and rebounds and blocked shots. She does a lot of little things.”

The 5-11 Titus can play anywhere on the floor, with her ball handling and passing skills enabling her to play point guard when needed, and her height allowing her to move inside when the team’s two inside starters need a break.

Titus averages more than 14 points a game, along with 7 ½ rebounds, four steals, four blocks and 5 ½ steals. She was quiet offensively for three quarters in the win over Alpharetta, but scored all four of her field goals in the final period, including three straight in the last three minutes with Northview protecting a very slim lead.

She also had a key steal and two blocked shots in one possession in the final minute, as she took the game over at both ends of the floor down the stretch. With Titus and six-foot sophomores Ashlee Austin and Maya Richards, the Lady Titans have some height in their starting lineup, with Austin and Richards combining for 23 points and 16 rebounds a game.

Austin, who averages 13 ½ points, scored 18 against Alpharetta, and leads the team with nine rebounds per contest. Both she and Richards, who averages almost 10 points and seven rebounds, do most of their damage under the basket, with the Lady Titans an excellent interior passing team. Richards gives the Lady Titans a strong inside presence on defense, while the athletic Austin is also part of the team’s up-tempo game.

Freshman Asjah Inniss is the team’s starting point guard, and averages seven points, three assists and three steals. As a freshman, she is prone to the occasional turnover, but is not alone in that regard, as the Lady Titans will make some errant passes.

“That’s a youth thing,” Yarbrough says of the turnovers, with the Lady Titans typically forcing more turnovers than they commit.

“We didn’t turn it over late tonight,” he said after the win against Alpharetta, one of the few close games Northview has faced in region play.

Inniss directs an offense that has put up some productive offensive numbers of late, her coach says Inniss is a big part of that.

“She’s really growing up,” Yarbrough says of the team’s young point guard. “She’s not playing like a freshman.”

The team’s fifth starter is junior guard Megan Cistulli, who enjoyed one of her best games of the season against Alpharetta, hitting a pair of 3s and contributing 13 points. Although the Lady Titans do not rely very heavily on their outside shooting, Cistulli is one of five players on the team able to hit the 3, with Titus leading the team and reserve sophomore guard Makayla Davis second in 3-pointers.

Davis and senior Erika Hama, primarily a defensive contributor, round out the 7-player rotation. Of Northview’s three losses, two came in a holiday tournament in South Carolina, with the Lady Titans losing to teams from South Carolina and Virginia that are both ranked among the top 10 in their states.

The lone loss to a Georgia team came early in the season against 7A opponent North Forsyth, one of nine Northview opponents from the state with at least 15 wins.

Although the Lady Titans have played a respectable schedule, they don’t have a win over a state-ranked team, and Yarbrough says that is why he elected to play in an event with high caliber teams in South Carolina.

“I thought we competed well,” Yarbrough said, with Northview losing its opener to the host team and the fifth place game to a strong opponent. The latter loss came at the end of a three games in three days stretch, with the Lady Titans coach observing that his team’s lack of depth contributed to some late game struggles.

Northview will have to play back-to- back games in the region tournament semifinals and finals, but will have plenty of rest between games at state, which should help offset Yarbrough’s depth concerns.

The Lady Titans have just one win in three previous state tournament appearances, that coming in 2011 when the team was led by Sydney Wallace, who went on to play at Georgia Tech.

Yarbrough believes this team has a chance to make some history at a school not known for its success in basketball, but will need to add a region tournament title to its first place finish in the regular season to have the best opportunity to make a run in the state playoffs.

Image via Patch