Murray County girls basketball bought in with belief

CHATSWORTH, Ga. (WDEF) — The Murray County girls basketball team is on the hunt for history. Tuesday, the Lady Indians won their first playoff game in more than 40 years.

For 15 years, Murray County’s Lady Indians haven’t won more than 11 games in a year. That all changed this year, with new head coach Chris Tipton leading the charge.

“For me, that was my vision coming in,” Tipton said. “We can either practice like a nine win team, or we can practice like a 19 or 20 win team. They bought in early.”

“They pushed us harder and would stop us and explain instead of just letting us do it wrong,” guard Alyssa Usrey said.

“I don’t think they were quite ready at the beginning. Like, ‘Hey, this is a crazy amount of work I’m going to have to put in.’ But now they’re getting the benefit of seeing, ‘Hey, this is how hard work pays off,'” Tipton said.

“We’re the same team we were last year. It just showed us how good we really could have been and how good we are,” guard Ella Dotson said.

Murray County not only won 20 games for the first time in decades… the Lady Indians got their first playoff win since the 70s on Tuesday.

“It was just really special because it hadn’t happened since even some of them’s parents were alive, including myself. When something historic like that happens, it’s kind of surreal, so you don’t really know how to feel,” Tipton said.

“That banner up there, it’s just crazy that it’s going to get updated. It really puts it into perspective like what we’re doing,” Dotson said.

“We’ve got one shooters’ shirt that says ‘Believe,’ and that’s kind of what we’ve hung our hat on. When I first started, getting the girls to believe was maybe my biggest obstacle. Not skills and drills, but hey, you deserve to be here. You deserve this success,” Tipton said.

“We just believe that we can, and we believe we can do it,” Usrey said.