Freshman guard Reagan Brown (2) and Northview faced Creek Wood in a TSSAA Class AA state quarterfinal at Murphy Center in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, on Thursday, March 11, 2021. The Lady Cougars won 43-35. (Photo by Danny Parker)
By JESSE SMITHEY
MURFREESBORO — The naivete of a freshman on the court in crunch time of a state tournament game typically can go one of two ways: help or harm.
The former applied for the Northview Academy girls’ basketball program on Thursday in the Class AA state tournament.
With the Cougars having rallied to take a one point lead with under a minute to go and then looking to run some clock to clinch a quarterfinal, freshman Reagan Brown pulled the trigger on a 3-pointer from the corner.
“I was just wide open, kinda,” said Brown. “So I just saw the goal and said: ‘shoot it.'”
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The shot fell and proved the game-deciding play in Northview’s 43-35 win over Creek Wood at MTSU’s Murphy Center.
The Cougars ended the game on a remarkable 13-0 run to advance.
Northview Academy (33-1) ran its win streak to 30 games and will match up against Macon County (24-6) at 4 p.m. Central time on Friday.
Hey, not bad for a Northview program in just its seventh season and in its first trip to a state tournament.
“It was awesome. We’ve never been here before, so we didn’t know what to expect,” said Northview senior Campbell Penland, who finished with 22 points and 12 rebounds.
“I’m not going to lie: I was a little nervous coming into it. But once I got on the court, I was like, ‘It’s just another basketball game.'”
But this win Thursday was hard-earned. Northview fell behind by eight in the third, and it trailed 35-30 with 1 minute, 59 seconds to go.
Here’s how the win went down: Penland got a layup, and then Brown got a steal that led to two foul shots by Penland.
Brown’s layup at the 1:09 mark put NVA up 36-35. After another steal, the Cougars were looking to burn some of the clock and force Creek Wood to foul, maybe.
Penland fired a pass over to Brown in the corner, and Brown apparently didn’t get the memo about extending the possession for as long as possible.
She fired one up and it fell through, never touching the rim. As pure as it gets.
That made it 39-35 Northview, which iced the game at the foul line from there.
“I’m not going to lie. When Campbell made the pass to (Brown), I could tell she was about to shoot it (the three),” said NVA coach Brooke Shelley. “I was like, ‘No!’
“And then I was like, ‘OK! We’ll take it!’ So, no we didn’t necessarily want that (shot attempt), but she had been in that spot before — obviously, making that huge 3 in the Alcoa (sectional) game. She believed in it. I’m glad it went in — but in the future, we’re not going to take that shot.”
The first half was not for the lovers of offense. Creek Wood mustered a 15-13 lead at the break, scoring the last six points of the half after going scoreless for 9:04.
They shot 20 percent in the first half. Northview didn’t fare much better on the Murphy Center’s rims, connecting on just 22.7 percent of its attempts.
Still, the Cougars recovered from a 9-4 deficit and led 11-9 heading into the second quarter.
Penland scored the first point in state tournament history for NVA on a free-throw at the 6:38 mark of the first quarter and then made a 3-pointer two minutes later for the program’s first made field goal in a state tournament game.
Only fitting for that the team’s all-time leading scorer, who has more than 2,000 points in her career, to record that honor.
Her layup to start the second half knotted the score at 15. But Creek Wood opened a lead with an 8-0 run and took a 27-22 advantage into the fourth.
Penland’s 3-point play with 5:59 to play gave NVA a 28-27 lead. But they trailed by five with 3:30 to go. That’s when Shelley called timeout.
It gave Penland a breather and allowed the Cougars to hit the reset button.
They closed on a 16-7 run.
“Again, just the resiliency, the grit. (Penland) is a winner,” said Shelley. “There are so many times in her career and especially this season when she’s put the team on her back and said, ‘Hey, let’s go. We’re going to do what it takes to get the job done.'”
5STAR PHOTOS by FCA: Northview Academy vs. Creek Wood (2021 Class AA quarterfinals)