Sydney Smith puts up a jumper for the Heritage Lady Generals as Meigs County's Kelsey Wood (1) applies pressure.
photo by Dennis Norwood
Baylor, Notre Dame, GPS and Meigs County all recorded opening round wins in the girls portion of the Best of Preps basketball tournament at Chattanooga State Friday, but only one of those four had a relatively-close game.
Notre Dame improved to 9-3 with a come-from-ahead 45-38 win over Tyner after Baylor improved to 8-1 with an impressive 61-33 romp over Signal Mountain in the first game of the day.
Then in the last two contests, GPS won for the 10th time in 14 games in a 46-29 victory over Chattanooga Christian while Meigs County improved to 10-4 with a 52-32 win over Heritage in the final girls quarterfinal game.
Baylor will face Notre Dame in the first semifinal for girls at 4 on Saturday with GPS and Meigs squaring off at 7. Signal Mountain faces Tyner in a consolation game at 10 a.m.
while Chattanooga Christian and Heritage meet at 1.
BAYLOR 61, SIGNAL MOUNTAIN 33: This game was relatively close for the first half with Baylor holding a 30-23 edge at the break.
The Lady Red Raiders then scored the first seven points of the third quarter and held the Lady Eagles to a couple of free throws for a 39-25 lead when the quarter ended.
Baylor went on another 11-0 run midway through the fourth stanza to put the game out of reach.
“We gambled a little bit in the first half as we were reaching too much, but we did a better job of defending in the second half,” said Baylor coach John Gibson afterwards.
“They were penetrating too much in the first half, but we did a better job of containing them in the second. I thought that Kaleigh Clemons played one her best games of the year as she shared the ball better than ever, but we have a veteran team and we can be pretty good when we play defense,” he added.
Clemons finished with 19 points to lead the Baylor attack while Abby Hubert and Mya Long both finished in double figures with 12 and 10 points, respectively.
Aryn Sanders, who entered the game averaging more than 25 points per contest, was limited to just 14 for Signal Mountain. Brooke Whitmire was next with 10.
NOTRE DAME 45, TYNER 38: This was a game of momentum swings and lots of silly mistakes, but in the end, the Lady Irish had more of the former and less of the latter.
Notre Dame had a 10-9 lead when the first quarter ended, but Tyner used an 8-0 run midway through the second stanza to turn a 15-14 deficit into a 22-15 lead following an inside move by Porchia Turner with three minutes remaining.
Tyner scored two buckets to open the second half for a 26-19 lead with 5:45 left in the third quarter before Notre Dame scored a dozen unanswered points for a 31-26 advantage with 3:23 to play in the quarter.
Just as quickly, Tyner scored the final eight points of the quarter for a 34-31 lead with eight minutes remaining.
Marquiesha Conyers hit the first of two free throws with 4:30 left in the game to give Tyner a 37-35 lead, but Notre Dame scored nine straight and 10 of the final 11 points to pull the game out at the end.
“At least they responded,” said Notre Dame coach Wes Moore in response to an outburst he had during a fourth-quarter timeout when the game was still in doubt.
“They needed a little correction to get back in the game. We needed to pick up the defensive pressure and we did, but our defense often generates points for our offense. We really had to work hard to get back in it, but it all paid off,” he added.
Morgan Cantrell scored 16 points to lead the Notre Dame attack while Annie Ripper followed with 10.
Samantha Maffett scored 15 points for the Lady Rams, now 4-7, while Turner was next with 14.
GPS 46, CHATTANOOGA CHRISTIAN 29: The Bruisers were already thin with leading scorer Akia Harris in a walking boot following a sprained ankle on Monday night. Then midway through the second quarter, Reagan Williams went to the bench with an ankle injury and didn’t return.
Despite having only six healthy players at the end, the Bruisers were able to slowly pull away for their 10th win against four losses.
“We’re the walking wounded right now, but we’re using a hodge-podge line up with different players at different positions,” said GPS coach Jennifer Williams.
“We were terrible in the first half defensively, but we did a better job in the second as we finally started boxing out. But we just can’t afford a lot of mistakes as inexperienced as we are,” Williams nodded.
GPS had a 31-24 lead going into the fourth quarter before the Bruisers held the Lady Chargers almost six minutes without a point. By the time Chole Pruitt scored on a short baseline jumper with 2:07 to play, the Bruisers had scored nine straight points and the outcome had been determined.
Brooke McCurdy, Jamesha Dunigan and Rachel Hudson all scored eight points to lead GPS while Gabria Hubbard had six. Joanna Smith was tops for CCS with 11.
MEIGS COUNTY 52, HERITAGE 32: The Lady Tigers raced to a 16-6 lead after the first quarter and the difference was 19-6 early in the second quarter, but the Lady Generals battled back to only trail by 23-16 at the half.
The third quarter was played on even terms as both teams scored 10 points, but the fourth was the game breaker as Meigs put the game out of reach with a 20-6 advantage in the final eight minutes.
Meigs had a 13-2 run in the first five minutes of the quarter to secure its 10th win in 14 games.
“We got off to a good start, but were stagnant in the second quarter,” expressed Meigs County coach Jason Powell.
“We took care of the basketball in the second half and we made the free throws when they fouled us, but we looked like we were tired at times as we seemed to lose our legs a little bit. We can’t just show up and go through the motions and expect to win. We’ve got to earn it,” he added.
Taylor Boggess was tops for Meigs with 22 points while Alex Dawson and Kelsey Woods followed with 14 and 12 points, respectively.
Tori Harvey was tops for Heritage with 10 points. Rachel Thomas finished with nine and Sydney Smith seven.
GIRLS QUARTERFINAL SUMMARIES
SIGNAL MOUNTAIN 8 15 2 8 -- 33
BAYLOR 12 18 9 22 -- 61
SIGNAL MOUNTAIN (33) – Peterson, Whitmire 10, Sanders 14, Bledsoe 3, Boals 6, Rackel, McGowan, Witherspoon.
BAYLOR (61) – Clemons 19, Willis 5, Lindsay 2, Huckabay 6, Simpkins 4, Hubbert 12, Wardeberg 2, Long 10, Popp 1.
3-POINT GOALS: Signal Mountain 2 (Sanders 2); Baylor 5 (Clemons 2, Willis, Huckabay 2.)
NOTRE DAME 10 9 12 14 -- 45
TYNER 9 13 12 4 -- 38
NOTRE DAME (45) – Beaman 4, Cantrell 16, Ripper 10, Hoffer 7, Siler 2, Wittler 6.
TYNER (38) – Smith 4, Turner 14, Maffett 15, Rodgers 2, Christopher 2, Conyers 1.
3-POINT GOALS: Notre Dame 3 (Cantrell 3); Tyner 2 (Maffett 2).
CHATTANOOGA CHRISTIAN 8 6 10 5 -- 29
GIRLS PREPARATORY SCHOOL 12 6 13 15 -- 46
CCS (29) – Pruitt 2, Henry, Dirkse 6, Fischer 2, Smith 11, Royer 4, Van Horn 2, Fikkert, Farlett 2.
GPS (46) – McCurdy 8, Hubbard 6, Dunigan 8, Jennings 4, Hudson 8, Ware 4, Williams 4.
3-POINT GOALS: Chattanooga Christian 1 (Smith); GPS none.
MEIGS COUNTY 16 7 10 20 -- 52
HERITAGE 6 10 10 6 -- 32
MEIGS CO. (52) – Woods 12, T. Boggess 22, Lewis 4, Dawson 14, Moore, M. Boggess, Crowder.
HERITAGE (32) – Bolden, Harvey 10, Smith 5, Hubbard 3, Thomas 9, Fine 3, Jost, Burns, Grant, Isbell.
3-POINT GOALS: Meigs Co. 4 (Woods 2, T. Boggess 2); Heritage 2 (Harvey, Fine).
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@comcast.net)
Tyner's Porchia Turner (53) shoots on the fly against the Notre Dame Lady Irish
photo by Dennis Norwood