DUNLAP, Tenn. – The news was all good for Chattanooga girls teams playing at the District 7-AA basketball tournament here at Sequatchie County High School Tuesday night.
The two games were similar as the Chattanooga Christian girls had an incredible comeback in the fourth quarter that produced a shocking 48-47 victory over Grundy County in the opener. The Sequatchie County Indians had a similar comeback to begin the second half, but the Lady Irish of Notre Dame were able to right the ship and prevail in an upset by a 54-45 final.
The two semifinals for boys will be played on Thursday with top-seeded Chattanooga Christian facing Notre Dame in the first game at 6:30 EST while Sequatchie County and Bledsoe County tangle in the second game around 8.
Then on Friday night, the girls will take center stage for their semifinals with CCS facing top-seed Bledsoe County at 6:30 and Notre Dame taking on second-seed Signal Mountain at 8.
CCS 48, GRUNDY COUNTY 47: The Lady Yellow Jackets have had a miserable season with only five wins and a whole lot more losses, but they came out firing bullets at the start of this one.
A pair of 3s by Kristin Weaver and Lacy Nunley helped Grundy County race to an 8-0 lead in the first two minutes and the difference was 16-7 when the first quarter ended.
The Lady Chargers got within six points near the end of the second quarter, but a long 3 at the buzzer by Teah Bosio allowed the Lady Yellow Jackets to take a 28-19 lead into the dressing room at intermission.
Another fast start by Grundy County to begin the second half allowed that nine-point lead to stretch to 38-23 with 4:50 showing and the lead was still 10 points at 41-31 when the fourth quarter began.
Nunley scored back-to-back buckets to start the fourth stanza as the Grundy lead was its largest at 45-32 with 5:03 to play, but that’s when the tide started turning and with it the hope of a Lady Yellow Jacket victory.
Weaver scored on a putback with 3:55 left, but Grundy County didn’t score again as CCS finished the game on a 13-0 run.
A layup by Chloe Pruitt with 1:04 to play gave the Lady Chargers their first lead at 48-47 and they had a chance to extend it with 12 seconds left before Annika Fischer missed the front end of a one-and-one.
Weaver had a last-second shot but missed as the CCS bench erupted in celebration.
“I’m speechless right now, but somehow we found a way to win,” said CCS coach Laura Cottrell after her team had improved to 14-13 and earned a spot in next week’s region tournament.
“The fight in these girls is really amazing, but they just wouldn’t quit tonight. They were tearing us up in the first half as our shots weren’t falling, but only by the grace of God did we win that game. I think I aged about 10 years, but we put a lot of pressure on them and I think we wore them down in the second half,” she smiled.
Grundy County coach Jon Shedd didn’t make any excuses.
“We just didn’t finish. We built a nice lead in the first half, but weren’t able to keep it. That’s been the case for this team all season,” he added.
Addie Henry scored 14 points and was one of three CCS players in double figures. Kate Dirkse was next with 13 while Pruitt finished with 11.
Nunley had 23 points to lead Grundy County while Weaver and Bosio both chipped in with 10.
Grundy County won the rebound battle by an unofficial 39-34 margin as Kiera Hobbs snagged 11 for the Lady Yellow Jackets. Weaver and Nunley both had seven.
Fischer only scored seven points, but she made her mark with a dozen rebounds. Katie Davick was next with seven.
NOTRE DAME 54, SEQUATCHIE CO. 45: The third time was the charm for the Lady Irish as they improved to 11-16 with perhaps their biggest win of the season.
Notre Dame coach Jason Hill was smiling from ear to ear when the final horn sounded and his girls had advanced by eliminating the third-seeded Lady Indians by a 54-45 margin.
“We’ve felt like we have a team that can compete with anyone on any given day, but we just have to show up. We finished at the bottom of the league and nobody in their right mind gave us a chance of winning, but we’ve been playing better as the season progressed and tonight, we put the team first,” he said afterward.
“We knocked down some big shots, especially in the fourth quarter, but we took a pretty good punch from them and responded in a positive way. We would have lost this game a month ago, but we’ve matured and I can’t tell you how proud I am of the effort we gave tonight,” Hill added.
The Lady Indians scored nine of the first 11 points and looked like they would breeze to another win over Notre Dame like they had in the previous two meetings this year.
But the Lady Irish had other ideas and put together a run of their own to score 12 of the final 16 points for a 14-13 lead when the first quarter ended.
The Lady Indians got a short jumper from Jennifer Tholken to start the second period, but that 15-14 lead was the last for Sequatchie County until the start of the fourth quarter.
Kate Ford scored Notre Dame’s last seven points of the period as the difference was 33-22 at intermission.
The Lady Indians came out for the second half with a different outlook as nine straight points to start the third quarter cut that 11-point halftime lead to 33-31 after Jordan Smith hit the first of two free throws with 3:26 showing.
Gracie Tate connected on a nice bank shot at the buzzer as the Lady Irish lead was just 38-35 with one quarter remaining.
A 7-0 run in the first 90 seconds of the fourth quarter allowed the Lady Indians to regain the lead at 42-38, but Meme Siler canned a 3 from the wing and Bella Bombassi scored on a putback 20 seconds later as Notre Dame took the lead back at 43-42 with 5:43 to play and the Lady Indians never got any closer.
Long shots from Ford and Laura Rabuano wrapped around a free throw from Kelci Sparks extended the lead to 50-42 with 3:02 to play and Notre Dame scored the final four points in the last two minutes for the comfortable nine-point victory.
Sequatchie County coach Ronnie Davis has been coaching high school girls for 46 years now and recently earned his 1,000th win, but he could only shake his head when this one ended as his girls finished with a 16-10 record.
“Rebounds and loose balls is what beat us and it’s really disappointing as we beat them pretty good both times we played this year. I really didn’t say much to them after the game as it was too late to change anything, but we just didn’t play very well tonight.
“I’ve been in this business a long time, but this may be my worst job of coaching as I never got them to produce like they were capable. We’ve had a lot of distractions this season, but this is really a disappointing way for us to finish the season,” he concluded.
Ford finished with 13 points to lead the Notre Dame attack while Rabuano was also in double figures with 11. Jada Sims hit some key buckets and tallied nine points while Siler added eight and Bombassi seven.
Smith was tops for Sequatchie County with 17 points. Ireland Burch, one of the best players in the Chattanooga area, was limited to a dozen points, but she played the entire fourth quarter with four fouls and never fouled out.
Notre Dame also had an unofficial 34-28 rebound edge as Sparks grabbed 10 and Mackenzie Johnson eight for the Lady Irish. Burch had 11 boards for the Lady Indians while Tate snagged seven and Peyton Longson six.
GRUNDY COUNTY 16 12 13 6 -- 47
CHATTANOOGA CHRISTIAN 7 12 12 17 -- 48
GRUNDY CO. (47) – Weaver 10, Rhea, Stiefel, Crabtree 3, Barrett 1, Nunley 23, Meeks, Hobbs, Bosio 10, Northcutt.
CCS (48) – Hughes, Pruitt 11, Blevins, Henry 14, Davick 1, Fischer 7, Walker, Dirkse 13, Jipping 2.
3-POINT GOALS: Grundy Co. 7 (Weaver 2, Crabtree, Nunley 2, Bosio 2); Chattanooga Christian 1 (Pruitt).
NOTRE DAME 14 19 5 16 -- 54
SEQUATCHIE CO. 13 9 13 10 - 45
NOTRE DAME (54) – Sheppare, Brown, Ford 13, Sims 9, Rabuano 11, Bombassi 7, Sparks 3, Siler 8, Johnson 3.
SEQUATCHIE CO. (45) – Smith 17, Longson, Tate 8, Burch 12, Tholken 6, Barger 2.
3-POINT GOALS: Notre Dame 8 (Ford 2, Sims, Rabuano 3, Siler 2); Sequatchie Co. 2 (Smith 2).
(email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)