The McMinn Central Chargerettes faced the Westview Lady Chargers in the TSSAA Class 2A state championship in Monte Hale Arena at the Murphy Center on Saturday, March 11, 2023, in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. The Westview girls won 56-37. (Photo by Danny Parker)
BY JESSE SMITHEY
MURFREESBORO — By the most generous of estimates Saturday night, Westview High School girls basketball coach Brian Haskins figured that his team played man-to-man defense for maybe two minutes this entire season.
Two minutes. Out of 34 total games, from November to March.
The multi-faceted zone that Westview used to win the 2022 state championship worked wonders in this year’s Class 2A state championship against McMinn Central.
McMinn Central, back in the state championship for the first time since 2015, shot 26.5 percent from the floor, 25 percent from 3 and got out-rebounded in a 56-37 loss to Westview in the season finale at MTSU’s Murphy Center.
“We toy with it all the time. We started off, a couple years ago, messing with it. We said, ‘Let’s go to it. Let’s go full time to it. Let’s do it,” said Haskins. “And, sometimes we match out of it. Sometimes, we’ll follow somebody. We’ll just lock up sometimes. You won’t know it’s a man because it still looks like a 2-3 (zone). If you start running sets against it, sometimes we’ll trap you out of it.
“No one’s kind of figured it out yet, and the reason is: we can’t really figure it out.”
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Karina Bystry led McMinn Central with 15 points and was the only Chargerette starter who shot 40 percent or better from the floor. She was 6-for-15 shooting. She, Molly Masingale and Maddox Mayfield made the Class 2A All-Tournament Team.
McMinn Central (28-8) finished runner-up for the fifth time, as it was looking to add another title to the only one in program history from 2011. But this silver ball will join ones from 1997, 2004, 2010, and 2015.
The entire roster returns at McMinn Central next season.
“Every year that I coach, when we start spring practice, we’re practicing to be here this night and playing in the state final — and getting a gold ball instead of a silver ball,” said McMinn Central coach Johnny Morgan, who just finished his 45th year as a head coach.
Westview (33-1) graduates three senior starters, including MTSU signee and Miss Basketball finalist Jada Harrison. She was named 2A tournament MVP for the second consecutive year. She had 17 points, 10 rebounds, and five assists.
Westview limited McMinn Central to 26.3-percent shooting in the first half and led 25-16 by the break.
McMinn Central couldn’t solve the defending champion’s zone.
Westview jumped ahead thanks to Harrison’s ability to take her defenders into the post and score. She had six points in the first half and four assists — those passes oftentimes setting up perimeter scores from Mary Anna Chester.
Chester hit a 3 for a 20-7 lead early in the second quarter, causing Morgan to call for a timeout at the 5:32 mark of the second quarter. McMinn Central quickly responded with four quick points to bring the deficit below 10.
But Chester hit a corner 3 off an assist from Harrison that gave Westview its largest lead of the half, 25-13, with 2:10 remaining. At that juncture, Westview was shooting 50 percent (5 of 10) from the 3-point line.
“She’s a very shifty guard, and she has the strength of a post,” Masingale said of Harrison. “So it’s guarding her shiftiness and beating and banging with her down in the post.
“Not only is she a good driver and finisher, but she finds her teammates for 3s. When she does beat us off the dribble and we help (defense), she’s able to find her teammates for 3s. I think the combination of all those things were difficult for us to adjust to.”
Morgan and staff kept the Central team in the locker room for quite some time at the half.
Whatever was said worked.
McMinn Central immediately dissected the Westview zone and got a layup. Reagan Baker of McMinn Central stole the inbounds pass and kicked it to Mayfield for 3. That 5-0 spurt quickly got the Chargerettes to within 25-21 only 26 seconds into the third quarter.
Harrison picked up her third foul with 3:42 left in the third.
Masingale made a mid-range jumper with 2:25 left that gave her her first made field goal since the early minutes of Friday’s semifinal. She followed with a top-of-the-key 3 at the 1:22 mark.
But despite the early second-half momentum, foul trouble for Harrison and Masingale rediscovering her stroke, McMinn Central trailed 37-28 with a quarter to play, as Harrison — again — took a defender into the paint and used her vertical to get an easy bucket with 3 seconds left.
That lead meant one thing: Westview would drain clock as much as it could in the final quarter.
After working 43 seconds off the fourth quarter clock, Westview got to the foul line and made two for an 11-point lead.
Chester, who was 3-for-3 from 3 on Saturday, buried another corner 3 with 6:46 to play that negated the 3 that Bystry had made just 25 seconds earlier and bumped the advantage back to double digits.
Harrison’s foul shots with 5:26 left put McMinn Central into a 14-point hole. She scored 30 seconds later on an easy layup for a 48-32 lead and never picked up a fourth foul.
“Early in the year, we did a lot of trying not to lose games,” said Morgan. “I feel like we did that this the whole tournament.
“We tried not to lose the game more than we tried to win the game.”
5STAR PHOTOS: McMinn Central Chargerettes vs. Westview Lady Chargers – Saturday, March 11, 2023