Southwest DeKalb’s Ruona Uwusiaba (23) drives to the basket against a Buford defender during the Class 5A state championship game. (Photo by Mark Brock)

The Southwest DeKalb Lady Panthers saw their reign as Class 5A state champs come to an end at the hands of the Buford Lady Wolves 60-42 on Wednesday night at Stegeman Coliseum on the UGA campus.

Jada Walton (Texas A&M signee) got the Panthers (27-5) off to a good start scoring off the opening tip on a pass from Michaela Bennefield for a quick 2-0 lead.

Buford (29-2) answered with a 9-0 due in part to press which gave Southwest trouble getting the ball onto the offensive end. The press contributed to six first quarter turnovers as Buford had five different players score in the early run.

Bennefield, Ruona Uwusiaba (Central Florida signee) and Walton revived the offense with some nice passing and offensive board work to trim the lead to 11-8 with 1:37 to play on Walton’s basket.

Tory Ozment’s three-pointer and Jessica Nelson’s offensive put back pushed Buford out to a 16-8 advantage with 33 seconds left in the opening quarter.

The senior duo of Walton and Uwusiaba went to work on the offensive boards and yielded five points in the final 18.7 seconds to pull the Panthers within 16-13 entering the second quarter.

Ozment opened the second quarter with a pair of three-pointers to quickly give the Wolves a nine-point advantage (22-13).

Walton answered with a drive and Bennefield got inside for a pair of baskets as Southwest seemed to find a life by shaking off the press.

Canice Collins short jumper aided by a Walton pass to her open teammate closed the gap to 24-21 and the Panthers got a turnover with an opportunity to pull within one or tie the game with 4:31 to play.

Turnovers hit again and three consecutive led to a three by Tate Walters, a short shot by Jessica Nelson and a three from Audrey Weiner put Buford up with the biggest lead of the game at 32-21.

Uwusiaba got inside with a pass from Walton and the Panthers looked to keep the game in single digits headed to half.

Southwest DeKalb’s Jada Walton (12) opens the game with a short jumper for the score. (Photo by Mark Brock)

Ozment had other ideas and a drive to the basket beat the buzzer to a 34-23 advantage in favor of the Wolves.

Uwusiaba hit for six points in the third quarter, but the turnover bug (5 for the Panthers) helped Buford which had nine steals in the game to increase their lead to 46-31 with one period to play.

Rachel Dobbs three-pointer early in the fourth quarter gave Buford a 17-point lead (51-34) with 5:22 to play and the Panthers would get no closer the rest of the way.

Uwusiaba finished her career at Southwest DeKalb with a strong 16 point, 16 rebound double-double in the title game to go with a double-double in the semifinals. Jada Walton, a member of the 1,000 career point club, had 13 points in her final game to go with six rebounds.

Junior Tory Ozment led Buford with a game high 18 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists and 5 steals.

The title game loss ended DeKalb County’s 13-year streak of having at least one state title. The district had won 31 titles between 2004 and 2016.