Women's Basketball's Lacy Robins, Terren Ward: Once Rivals, Now Teammates
12/23/2020 12:00:00 PM | Women's Basketball
High school rivals for local Statesboro and Wayne County High Schools now find themselves best friends for the Eagles
STATESBORO - High school rivalries can be intense, especially with neighboring schools. Rarely do those rivalries carry over into college.
But for Wayne County High School product Terren Ward and Statesboro High School product Lacy Robins, their rivalry that spanned four years and 11 head-to-head matchups has taken a turn that now has the pair of guards embracing a new role - that of teammates for the Georgia Southern women's basketball team.
And not only are the pair teammates, they are roommates as well.
We sat down with Terren and Lacy to talk about their high school play, and how that relationship changed to being teammates as they made the transition to collegiate athletics.
"It was always back and forth," Lacy Robins said about the battles between the Statesboro Blue Devils and the Wayne County Yellow Jackets. "But we always ended up winning in the Championship." (In fact, Statesboro won seven of the 11 matchups between the schools while Lacy and Terren played)
Three out of the four years that both Robins and Ward played for their respective schools, Statesboro and Wayne County met in the Region 2-5A Championship. The Blue Devils won, 48-39, in the 2017 region title game. The two did not meet in 2018, but Statesboro won 57-38 in 2019. In their final meeting, the 2020 championship, Statesboro won 52-42.
In that last meeting, Terren Ward had a game-high 24 points in a losing effort - more than half of her team's offensive output Robins, meanwhile, had 21 points for the victorious Blue Devils.
That game, among others, caught the attention of Georgia Southern women's basketball head coach Anita Howard. She knew she wanted to keep talented local players close to home.And Lacy was the first to commit to play collegiately at Georgia Southern.
How did that affect the recruiting of Terren?
"It helped a little bit," Ward said. "I was kinda brushing Southern off, but when I saw that Lacy had committed, I was like, 'Ok.'"
The two eventually would be part of the 2020-21 class for Georgia Southern that would bring six freshman to Statesboro. So in a span of just a few months, the pair would go from on-court rivals to teammates - and roommates - with the Eagles.
"It was funny," Ward said about being matched with Lacy as roommates. "I think they did this on purpose."
Lacy was the first to move in for the Fall semester. "At first, I felt like it was awkward," Ward said about arriving at the apartment to find Robins already moved in. "But it got better. She isn't what I expected. And she probably thought I was mean. But Lacy was real laid back. I didn't think she would be."
The off-court demeanor also caught Robins by surprise. "Terren's real goofy off the court," Lacy said.
The two have made that instant connection, however, and are almost inseparable now midway through their freshman year at Georgia Southern. And that's translated to the court as well.
"I do like her game more here, than in high school," Robins said. "I mean, I paid attention to her when we were playing against each other in high school, but playing with her here is different."
"I know that if I see her on the wing, I've got to give it to her," Ward said.
"We have a better connection," Robins said. "You wouldn't think we would have that connection because we were rivals, but we do."
We asked each of the teammates the one surprising thing they learned from being roommates that they didn't know beforehand.
"Her music type," Ward said. "For example, she likes 'Who You Are' by Jessie J. She was playing the song one day, and I was like, 'I like that song!' That was surprising."
"She's really spoiled," Robins said, laughing. "She didn't know how to wash clothes. She had to call her momma and ask her how to do it."
One thing the two can agree on is the future of the Eagles. Both have contributed during their freshman season. Ward has seen action in all seven games so far in 2020-21, and twice has registered double-digit scoring contests. Robins has played in six games, and has made her impact defensively, notching six steals and three blocked shots in those six games.
So we asked both of the freshmen, how good can Georgia Southern be?
"I think we could be real good," Ward said.
"If we can learn to play team ball, yeah, we could be real good," Robins agreed.
