The Gatlinburg-Pittman Highlanders took down the Smith County Lady Owls, 54-46, in a TSSAA Class 2A state tournament quarterfinal at Murphy Center on Thursday, March 7, 2024, in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. (Photo by Danny Parker)
BY JESSE SMITHEY
MURFREESBORO — Maddy Newman proved to be quite the safety net for the Gatlinburg-Pittman girls’ basketball team Thursday.
With the Lady Highlanders’ lead in a Class 2A state quarterfinal dwindling by the minute, Newman provided the key points, rebounds and steals that her team needed to advance.
Not that she needed to validate her Miss Basketball finalist label.
But she did anyway.
The 6-foot-1 senior forward and Tennessee Tech signee scored 21 points with 10 rebounds and three steals in Gatlinburg-Pittman’s 54-46 win.
Advancing to the state semifinals for the first time since 2022 and third time overall, Gatlinburg-Pittman (35-3) will play at 5:30 p.m. Central time Friday at MTSU against Loretto (28-3).
Loretto defeated Westview, the defending state champion in 2A, by a 54-49 count on Thursday.
Gatlinburg-Pittman has never advanced to a state final.
“It feels good to be able to get there again,” Newman said of reaching the semifinals. “We just need to be ready to go and take care of business and hopefully make it as far as we’ve ever gone before.”
HOW G-P WON THURSDAY
Newman took over in the third quarter, after Smith County (22-12) had cut G-P’s 10-point halftime lead down to five.
Newman’s 3-point play at the 3:06 mark of the third made it 36-26 Lady Highlanders. Some 30 seconds later, she scored on a slash to the basket for a 12-point lead.
“I was taking some not-the-best-choice shots at the beginning of the third. I came out of the game and the coaches told me I needed to take control,” Newman said.
“When I went back in there, that’s what I did.”
Maliyah Glasper’s transition layup with 13 seconds later in the quarter helped G-P take a 42-31 into the fourth.
Newman’s left-handed baby hook shot in the opening seconds of the fourth extended that lead to 13.
Trinity Whaley’s left-handed layup kept G-P’s lead 13 with 4:27 to play.
G-P’s attempt, though, over the next two minutes to drain the clock backfired, and Smith County took advantage of three turnovers to cut the lead to 48-43 with 2:20 remaining.
Newman didn’t flinch.
She made two foul shots with 1:57 to go to make it 50-43 G-P.
After Airy Enoch hit a 3 for Smith County with 60 seconds left, Newman got to the foul line and made 1 of 2. After missing the second, she got the offensive rebound.
When Smith County missed on its next two possessions, Newman got the defensive rebounds.
Nya Burns made two free throws to help seal it with 23 seconds to play.
Newman got a steal on the other end to put the final stamp on the win.
THE FIRST HALF
Gatlinburg-Pittman led 31-21 at the half, thanks to the Lady Highlanders forcing 11 Smith County turnovers and also hauling in 11 offensive rebounds.
That lead could have been larger, though, as the Lady Highlanders shot 34.3 percent from the floor, 3 of 13 from the 3-point line and 4 of 8 at the foul line in the first 16 minutes.
Still, a big 3 by Burns and then a 3-point play by Newman late in the first quarter gave the Lady Highlanders a 19-14 lead after eight minutes.
Burns and Newman added two buckets in the first 40 seconds of the second quarter to bump the lead to nine (23-14).
Leah Stinnett buried a deep 3 from the right wing with 5 minutes to play before half to again push the lead to nine (26-17). Sophomore guard Addison Wear added her own 3 at the 4:30 mark of the second for a 29-18 advantage.
Smith County, which was making its first state tournament appearance, was 4-3 in its last seven games entering the state tournament. But it was no pushover.
Their team length and zone defense caught G-P coach Katie Moore’s attention when seeing them on film.
“(At half), we just talked about how we were getting whatever look we wanted but we had to knock that shot down,” Moore said. “We talked going into this game that the middle of the paint was going to be the option we had. So we had to have someone in there who could shoot to score it.
“I think we made an adjustment to that in the second half.”