The North Greene girls could not keep up with a deep and dangerous Alcoa team on Friday night in the opening round of the Andrew Johnson Bank Ladies, falling 69-46 at Hal Henard Gymnasium.
“Our opponent was a pretty talented team,” North Greene coach James Buchanan said. “They have excellent shooters, they are a well balanced team and they are deeper than we are. I felt fatigue became a factor in the fourth quarter. But I was really proud of our defense in the third quarter, and there were things we can build on. The kids fought hard until the end, and you want to see that out of your ball club.”
The Lady Huskies will now be off until Monday when they will play Chuckey-Doak at 9 a.m. Alcoa advances to play Farmington, Arkansas at 6 p.m. on Saturday.
“We know we are going to see quality teams at this tournament and these are the types of teams you are going to see at the end season if you are going to make a run,” Buchanan said. “We are trying to look for things we need to improve on and things we need to fix before we move into the new year. That’s what we are looking for out of this tournament”
Friday’s action started with North Greene taking the lead when Josie Graham found Eva Leonard open in the corner for a three-pointer.
The teams traded buckets in the early going and North Greene’s last lead came at 9-8 when Tralyn Southerland made one at the charity stripe.
Carson-Newman signee Gwen Carroll gave Alcoa the lead for good when she got ahead of the Lady Huskies in transition. Then in the final 40 seconds of the opening period both Halle Bailey and Kadie Bremer dropped in runners as the Lady Tornadoes took a 19-11 lead.
North Greene’s Ella Head started the second quarter with a turnaround jumper from the paint, but with 6:25 left in the first half Alcoa’s lead reached double digits when Bailey swiped possession at midcourt and advanced it to Maddy Stewart for a lay in that made it 23-13.
The hot shooting Lady Tornadoes stretched that lead to 32-15 when Bailey jumped an inbound pass at midcourt and took it the other way with 3:23 still left in the first half.
Alcoa shot 78-percent from the field in the second quarter and 67 percent in the first half as it built its lead.
Southerland got North Greene going again when Graham found her cutting to the hoop. She followed that with a pair of free throws and Leonard ended the half with a jump shot from the paint to close the gap to 34-21.
In the third quarter the Lady Huskies stiffened up on defense and held Alcoa to three made baskets through the first seven minutes of the period, but they could not get their own offense going to take advantage.
Alcoa got two of its buckets from Carroll in a 46 second stretch to take a 41-23 lead. It then went scoreless for over four minutes.
Cadie McDevitt broke through for North Green with a pair of free throws, then with 1:24 left in the period Southerland put back her own miss to close the gap to 41-28.
Over the final 58 seconds of the third quarter both Bailey and Stewart scored for Alcoa and it took a 45-28 lead into final frame.
With 6:14 left in the game Alcoa’s lead reached 20 points at 50-30 when Bailey nailed a triple from the top of the key. Six points from Ronique Garner moved that lead to 58-32.
In the final four minutes North Greene got five points from Leonard while Alcoa got seven points from Mary Kate Jackson on the way to a 69-46 win.
Southerland led North Greene on Friday with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Leonard added 12 points.
Alcoa used a balanced attack with Stewart leading the way 11 points and six rebound. Brylee Flatt had 10 points and Carroll had 10 points. Bailey finished with nine points, five steals and three assists.
COCKE COUNTY 74, CHUCKEY-DOAK 24
The Chuckey-Doak girls could not handle Cocke County’s relentless defense on Friday evening and fell 74-24 to start the Andrew Johnson Bank Ladies Classic.
The Lady Red stayed in the half court for most the night, but with their traps a quick switches they forced 33 turnovers in the win while holding Chuckey-Doak to 3-of-14 shooting from the field over the final three quarters.
Despite that the early going went back and forth and Chuckey-Doak led 6-5 when Chloe Kirkpatrick got a runner to fall. It took 18 seconds for Cocke County to regain the lead when Loretta Kicklitter nailed a triple.
Three-pointers from Jaylee Lane and Kailixx Stewart followed and Cocke County closed the quarter leading 19-11.
On the first possession of the second quarter Jayden Myers knocked down a three-pointer for Chuckey-Doak to close the gap to 19-14. The Lady Knights were then held scoreless for the remainder of the period.
Consecutive fastbreak layups from Ava Wheeler and Brooklyn Clevenger pushed the lead to 26-14. Clevenger added five more points, and Ellie Proffitt finished the period by scoring from the block as the Lady Red’s lead grew to 37-14.
Cocke County finished the first half on an 18-0 run and started the third quarter on a 19-0 run as the lead grew to 56-14. Chuckey-Doak went 15:38 of game time between made baskets.
With two seconds left in the period Myers laid one off the glass, but Cocke County started the fourth quarter leading 56-16.
With the clock running Cocke County’s lead reached 69-19 by the midway point of the period after Wheeler scored off steal by Proffitt.
Proffitt led Cocke County with 13 points on Friday. Ava Wheeler had 12 points and Karmine Carmichael had nine points and nine rebounds.
Myers and Kirkpatrick each scored seven points for Chuckey-Doak.
Chuckey-Doak will be back in action on Monday against North Greene at 9 a.m. Cocke County will play Webb on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
