ROGERSVILLE – Things looked bleak for the West Greene girls for most of Monday night, but a late-game press turned things around before Payton Norton beat the buzzer for a game-winning three-pointer.
The Lady Buffaloes trailed by 11 points with 5:38 left to play and played from behind for over 24 minutes, but Norton’s big bucket allowed them to escape Cherokee with a 41-40 win.
“This was a great win. We start the fourth quarter down 12, and to see these girls fight like that is great. We get the shot at the end to win it, and that makes for a fun night,” West Greene coach Betsy Shaw said.
Monday’s fourth quarter started with Cherokee leading 37-25. With 5:38 left Addie Lawson scored on an inbound play to put the Lady Chiefs up 39-28.
Going the other way Joie Shipley scored on an offensive rebound for West Greene and then Shaw called a timeout that changed the course of the game.
The Lady Buffaloes went to a full-court press that had Cherokee spinning, and the Lady Chiefs did not hit another field goal the rest of the night. In fact they went 5:33 without any points.
“I love the press, but the problem is you have to sub more, and we just aren’t that deep,” Shaw said. “So we can’t run it that often, but it was great to see it work at the end. Those girls worked so hard at the end and a lot of people contributed to that comeback.”
Emily Justis closed the gap to 39-35 with 3:53 left to play after she finished steals by Morgan Brown and Shipley with a pair of layups.
With 3:20 left Shipley stole the ball on the opposite end and Brown went through the Lady Chiefs for a breakaway layup. The shot was off the mark, but Justis grabbed the rebound and knocked down a short jumper to cut the lead to 39-37.
From there the Lady Buffaloes shots stopped falling and the score held until the seven-second mark when Brown was fouled. She made one-of-two free throws to close the gap to 39-38.
With five seconds remaining Cherokee’s Lawson made one free throw. When her second shot bounced off the iron Shipley grabbed the rebound and quickly went the other way before Shaw called a timeout with 2.6 seconds left.
Brown inbounded the ball on the far side of the midcourt stripe and delivered it to Norton. Norton charged at the three-point line and launched a 25 footer that lifted West Greene to a 41-40 win.
“The shot was not supposed to go to me, but the ball came to me, and I just turned and I went,” Norton said. “I just put the shot up and the next thing I knew I was on the floor and everyone was on top of me. It was an awesome moment. I was on cloud nine, and I couldn’t stop smiling.”
In a slow-paced first quarter West Greene led 8-2 after Justis and Shipley hit from behind the arc.
Lawson got going for the Lady Chiefs and scored eight points to even the score at 10-10.
Kendra Fields finished the period with a three-pointer that gave Cherokee a 13-12 lead, and the Lady Chiefs held that lead until Norton’s game-winning bucket.
West Greene managed to score just seven points in the second quarter while Cherokee’s Chloe Pearson put in eight points. By halftime the Lady Chiefs led 26-19.
Early in the third quarter both teams struggled to get shots to fall, but with 3:04 left Brown put back a miss for West Greene to close the gap to 30-25.
Cherokee scored the final seven points of the quarter to take a 37-25 lead into the final period.
Justis led West Greene on Monday with 19 points. Brown scored eight, Shipley had seven and Norton scored seven.
Lawson scored 20 points for Cherokee.
