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MURFREESBORO — Get all the details, stats, comments and more from Friday’s TSSAA Girls State Semifinal Round.
Given the amount of 5Star Preps teams still alive, our staff felt better to serve you the information in this format on games for :
- Gatlinburg-Pittman (2A)
- Alcoa (3A)
- Cocke County (3A)
- Sevier County (4A)
Let’s get to it…
CLASS 4A
SEVIER COUNTY 34,
BLACKMAN 26
The more the Blackman girls’ basketball team worked the ball in the half court, trying to find openings in Sevier County’s zone defense, the more it became apparent Friday night that the Bearettes had Blackman right where they wanted.
The Sevier County defense — the star of the upset over three-time defending state champion Bradley Central on Thursday — owned centerstage again, limiting Blackman (29-4) to 32.3 percent shooting and just 10 made field goals in the 34-26 win.
Sevier County out-rebounded an ultra-athletic and big Blackman team, 31-20, and allowed just one 3-point make in 11 tries by Blackman.
For their efforts, the Bearettes (28-5) advanced to the state title game for the first time since 2002, when Sevier County won its lone girls’ basketball state title.
Sevier County will take on Cookeville (30-4) at 4 p.m. Central time Saturday in the title game.
Kaliyah Burden led Sevier County in scoring Friday with a game-high 16 points.
Some 16 players combined played in the contest. Burden was the only one who scored more than 10 points.
Leading 23-17 to begin the fourth quarter, Sevier County coach Jonathan Shultz let it be known to his team that he didn’t want them to “let the air out of the ball,” meaning kill the clock by stalling and working the ball around in the half court.
So when Burden popped in a deep 3 from the right wing in the opening minute, she was simply following Shultz’s orders.
She went 2-for-5 on 3s Friday. Burden shooting with confidence in key moments came from preparation, she said.
“It just comes with a lot of practice, getting a lot of reps during and after practice,” she said. “That’s how you develop confidence: seeing them go in and working overtime.”
That shot, though, of Burden’s early in the fourth stretched Sevier County’s lead to nine points.
And in a defensive game like the one the Bearettes had on their hands against Blackman, a nine-point lead was essentially insurmountable; after all, Blackman scored just 13 points in the first half and only four points in the fourth quarter.
“The girls knew the game plan, and they executed it,” Shultz said. “I felt like if we held them to one shot, we had a great chance of winning the game. In the first half, when we had the lead in rebounds, I started feeling pretty good about it.
“Blackman is really athletic. Got a lot of size. But these girls have a lot of heart — and they showed it in the way they played and defended.”
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CLASS 3A
DYERSBURG 61,
ALCOA 53
Alcoa coach David Baumann struggled repressing his emotions in the postgame, as an Alcoa team that he relished coaching maybe more than any other had its season end in the 3A semifinals.
Dyersburg senior guard Chelby Jordan scored a game-high 30 points, and the Lady Trojans advanced to Saturday’s title round with a 61-53 win.
Alcoa freshman Harper Stinnett led the Lady Tornadoes (28-8) with 22 points. She showed impressive range in the first half, as she scored 10 points and knocked in a pair of deep 3s to help keep the Lady Ts keep close. Her second make from the arc pulled Alcoa to within 22-20 of Dyersburg with 3:32 left in the first half.
“It’s something I’ve seen since she was 5 years old,” Baumann said of Stinnett’s day. “She was in kindergarten with my daughter when they were 5 and they played Upward basketball together.
“So we’re not surprised. She’s been that player throughout the season in big times and big moments. It’s not surprising to see what she accomplished on this stage.”
But Jordan, a 5-8 guard and Miss Basketball finalist for Dyersburg (27-6), had 16 in the first half. Her 3 with 1:47 left in the second quarter pushed Dyersburg’s lead to 29-22.
The Lady Trojans took a 30-25 advantage into the halftime break.
Stinnett buried a baseline jumper and Halle Bailey a 3 to open scoring in the third. Stinnett drilled a step-back 3 midway through the third to cut Dyersburg’s lead to 37-35. Her foul shots at the 2:47 mark pulled Alcoa even at 37-all.
Jacy Cox’s deep 3 from the wing gave Alcoa its first lead (40-37) with 1:59 left in the third.
Dyersburg responded with a 13-0 run that stretched into the fourth.
Alcoa trailed by nine points (54-45) with 2:15 to play. A 25-foot, 3-point make by Stinnett cut the deficit to just six just 14 seconds later.
Dyersburg made 16 of 19 on free throws Friday.
But in the fourth, it produced a 9-for-9 clip to close out the win.
“Just ran out of time and didn’t get enough stops. Ran into a good team, too,” Baumann said. “Ran into a good team and a heck of a player (Jordan). No disrespect to anyone else but that looked like Miss Basketball to me.”
Dyersburg will face White County (34-5) at 1:30 p.m. Saturday in the state championship.
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CLASS 3A
WHITE COUNTY 46,
COCKE COUNTY 43
Ava Wheeler’s 3-pointer in the final seconds carried the weight of Cocke County on it, but the off-balance shot over two White County defenders bounded off, as the Cocke County Lady Red were denied their first-ever berth into a state championship game.
Meanwhile, White County will return to the state finale for the first time since 1992, seeking its first state title since its only one won from 1929. White County is coached by Michael Dodgen, the son of Farragut High athletics director Donald Dodgen.
“Coach (Boddie) Bible has done a heck of a job at Cocke County, and that town of Newport has a lot to be proud of with him,” Michael Dodgen said.
“What a great atmosphere for high school girls basketball,” he added. “You got to give both communities and the normal fans who walked into the Murphy Center today a lot of credit. Because, women’s basketball, that’s what it should be like every single time, when people step on the floor.”
The back-and-forth affair between Cocke County and White County had the Murphy Center stirred up.
White County’s largest lead was only seven points, and that came with 2 minutes, 46 seconds left in the fourth.
Cocke County (34-5), which has been to state in each of the last three seasons, used its know-how to battle back.
Junior forward Karmine Carmichael — who scored a game-high 23 points with a game-high 10 rebounds — made two foul shots to keep the deficit manageable. Some 30 seconds later, at the 2:02 mark of the fourth, senior guard Brookelyn Clevenger sliced through the White County defense and scored, drawing a foul in the process.
Her 3-point play made White County’s lead just 40-38.
White County made one field goal in the final 6:37 of the contest and was 7 of 11 at the foul line in the latter half of the fourth, keeping the door open for Cocke County.
Wheeler got fouled on a 3-pointer with 12 seconds left and made two foul shots to make White County’s lead just 45-43.
Ashlyn Selby, who was 9 of 14 at the foul line for White County, made just 1 of 2 foul shots with 10 seconds to go. But Cocke County just couldn’t manufacture a clean open look in the final seconds to possibly shoot overtime. Wheeler’s contested offering almost fell through, though.
“We had the chance a couple times late there to take the lead. Unfortunately,” Bible said, “it just didn’t go our way.
“We didn’t get a great look (on the final shot) but it got up there on top of the rim. If it gets up there on top of the rim, it’s got a chance to go in. I just can’t be more proud of our girls and their effort.”
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CLASS 2A
HUNTINGDON 65,
GATLINBURG-PITTMAN 42
The magic Gatlinburg-Pittman used to win a 2A state quarterfinal this week in Murfreesboro only spilled over into the first few minutes of Friday’s semifinal.
Chloe Mejias scored 17 and Miss Basketball winner Maliyah Glasper added 14, but Huntingdon raced past G-P 65-42 at the Murphy Center.
Gatlinburg-Pittman (31-4) had its season conclude in the semifinals for the third consecutive season.
It started better Friday than its quarterfinal Wednesday, when it trailed by 16 in the second half during a comeback win.
G-P made its first three shots against Huntingdon (29-3), and then G-P later led 10-4 after Glasper hit her second 3 of the first quarter at the 5:44 mark.
“I thought in those first four minutes that we showed up to play basketball,” G-P coach Katie Moore said. “And then I felt like we missed a few shots and, for whatever reason, just started falling apart.
“We knew they (Huntingdon) were going to pressure us and try to make us uncomfortable with that 2-3 (zone). We talked about how we need to attack and attack. And I think we did it. But then we couldn’t knock down those shots, for whatever reason.”
Foul trouble (six) for the Lady Highlanders and turnovers (nine), though, helped usher Huntingdon ahead after the first quarter, 18-13.
Huntingdon’s pressure defense suffocated G-P for the duration of the first half and that built Huntingdon a 37-20 advantage.
G-P shot 28.6 percent in the first half — going 3-for-18 shooting in the second quarter — and finished with 12 turnovers and 12 fouls at the break. Huntingdon went 12 of 20 at the foul line and shot 46 percent from the floor in the first 16 minutes, scoring 12 points off G-P turnovers.
No rally this time for G-P, though. Huntingdon’s lead swelled to 46-20 in the opening 3 minutes of the third, creating a deficit too daunting to scale.
The Lady Highlanders wound up shooting 26.6 percent Friday with 28 personal fouls and 17 turnovers.
They shot six free throws compared to 37 by Huntingdon.
“I told (my players) at halftime that I can’t really say that any of the fouls there were called against us weren’t fouls,” Moore said. “Because I felt like we did foul every time they called it. I did feel like we were getting hacked a little bit. But when you’re not hitting shots and not playing within our game plan, it’s hard for me to even focus on the officials. Because we weren’t doing what we had been talking about doing the whole time.”
Huntingdon 6-foot freshman forward Wylie Kee, a Miss Basketball finalist, scored 22 points and had 15 rebounds.
Huntingdon will face York (30-6) in the 2A championship at 11 a.m. Central time on Saturday.
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