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BY JESSE SMITHEY
COOKEVILLE — Experience at state tournaments usually wins out. And size advantage, too. But those trends didn’t play out Friday for The King’s Academy girls basketball team.
Though they had played at Tennessee Tech’s Eblen Center just a year ago in the Division II-A state semifinals, that didn’t springboard the Lady Lions into success this time. Neither did their massive front-court height.
Goodpasture, which was making its first state appearance since 2020, used its diminutive four-guard lineup to agitate TKA over four quarters en route to a 58-47 win.
The Lady Cougars (25-3) forced 21 turnovers, won their 17th consecutive game and will play in the title game at 4 p.m. Saturday against the winner of Friday’s CAK/USJ matchup.
TKA’s season ended at 23-9.
“We’ve watched them play (before), and they played that small lineup,” TKA coach Dante Turnipseed said. “They just play fast — really, really scrappy. I knew that’d be a problem for us. But we just tried to slow it down, throw it into the post a couple of times. But (Goodpasture) is just scrappy. They play hard.”
TKA took first command of the game, extending a 11-8, first-quarter lead into an 18-12 advantage when Olivia Loveday cashed in on a three-point play with 4:40 remaining before the half.
“Very comfortable and confident (early). I preached to them, ‘Hey, we’ve been here before. Let’s play like it. Let’s act like it,'” Turnipseed said.
“You’re going to play a good team every time you come down here, so it’s not just going to be a (cake) walk.”
But Goodpasture ramped up its defensive intensity, forcing six TKA turnovers in the final 4:40 of the half and sparking a 13-2 run to close the half.
Goodpasture led 25-20 at the break despite being out rebounded, 18-8, and despite shooting 37 percent from the floor to TKA’s 46.7 percent.
It was all about ball security, and TKA had 13 turnovers while Goodpasture had but four.
TKA’s deficit grew to 35-24 midway through the third, as the Lady Lions failed to get an easy defensive rebound. The ball bounded over to an open Addi Ruffin of Goodpasture who promptly sank a 3 from the left wing.
Skylar Walden led TKA on Friday with 17 points. She got her first 3 to go for TKA with 2:47 left in the third to cut Goodpasture’s lead to 35-28. That big play didn’t snowball into a run, however; Goodpasture took a 40-33 lead into the final quarter.
Walden buried a deep 3 with 5:59 to play to make Goodpasture’s lead 44-38, but the Lady Cougars scored immediately on their subsequent possession to push the lead back to a comfortable eight.
TKA turned the ball over on its next two possessions, and Goodpasture bumped its lead to 10 at the midpoint of the fourth. That made TKA’s turnover total stand at 19 to Goodpasture’s five.
Goodpasture’s aggressive defense did put TKA on the foul line plenty. The Lady Lions went 15 of 20 at the free-throw line, and Walden’s two makes there with 1:54 remaining trimmed her team’s deficit to 52-45.
Still, no run materialized from it.
Ona Hawkins, a 5-4 guard, slipped past TKA defenders and scored at point-blank range for a 54-45 lead with 1:19 to play.
Freshman guard Brooklyn Jones — all 5-foot of her —slashed in for an easy score on Goodpasture’s next possession to make it 56-47 with 46 seconds to go.
“We want to build off this. I told the girls, ‘Build off this and learn from it,'” Turnipseed said. “With losses, you try to learn from those mistakes and try to get back here next year. And improve. Like we been talking all week, ‘The things we’re trying to teach you now might now work tomorrow. But you get that mindset, and you can change the whole category of your team by next year.
“We plan on bringing everybody back, so we can just build off that.”