6 hours Ago By BRIAN WOODSON [email protected]
BRISTOL, Tenn. — Three bus trips in three days from Newport to Bristol was worth it for the Lady Red. “We try to schedule the best teams that we can possibly play in the best tournaments to get us ready for the postseason,” said Cocke County head coach Boddie Bible, who led the Lady Red to the 3A state semifinals in his first year as head coach last year.
“We came up here and got to play three really good basketball teams and we played really well each day.” Especially defensively in the final period as the Lady Red held the visitors from Scottsboro, AL., to three fourth quarter points to claim the championship of the Doc Maples Holiday Hoops Tournament, 50-45, on Saturday evening at Vikings Hall.
“I felt like we had a little bit of energy in the third day, a long drive, all that type stuff today, but we found enough late in the game,” Bible said. “I have really got a lot of good basketball players and more importantly, they are competitors. Sometimes that is enough.
They hate to lose and they will give us everything they have got and they are fun to coach.” Cocke County (10-4), which defeated Tennessee High and Abingdon in the first two rounds, got 15 points each from 6-foot-2 tourney MVP Karmine Carmichael and senior Abby Niethammer to became the first regional team to win the event since Dobyns-Bennett in 2017. Shakyra Reed added eight points and Brooklyn Clevenger canned two 3s for seven points in the win.
“I have got a lot of girls that buy in and do their part,” Bible said. “They are very unselfish and that is what makes us a good basketball team.” Scottsboro (13-2), which lost in the 5A state championship last season in Alabama, led after each of the first three quarters, but managed just a single 3-pointer from Holiday Hoops 3-point shooting champion Tatum Shelton to pull within 47-45 with 43 seconds to play.
Shelton led the Wildcats with 18 points. Izzy Nelson had nine and Caroline Dawson added eight. “It was definitely worth the trip,” said Scottsboro head coach Brandon Childers, whose Wildcats defeated Elizabethton and Dobyns-Bennett the previous two days.
“We had three good competitive games, exactly what we needed. We wanted to face adversity, we did in all three games, everything we wanted. We would have liked to have won it, but it didn’t fall our way.
” THIRD PLACE ABINGDON 44, DOBYNS-BENNETT 38 The ball just wouldn't drop in the hole for the Indians, which managed just 12 second half points on four 3-pointers to fall to the Falcons. “It was one of those days where there was a lid on it. Sometimes when you are tired that happens,” Dobyns-Bennett head coach Bill Francis said.
“In the third quarter we struggled to score and we settled for quick shots. It is hard too get kids, especially younger kids, to understand that you are not going to shoot your way out of that. You have got to pull the ball back, you have got to run some offense.
Every time I tried to get us to run something a shot had already gone up...
Lessons learned, those are the things we are trying to grow from. You learn those things in games.” Abingdon (7-1) was led by 6-foot-3 junior Annsley Trivette, an NCAA Division I prospect, who scored 17 points, but Francis noted she had to earn what she got while being defended by Jaleah Relaford and Sally McReynolds.
Lauren Baker added eight points and Chloe Reynolds had seven for the Falcons, which trailed 26-25 at halftime, but outscored the Indians 19-12 in the second half. “Abingdon is a tough matchup for us, 54 (Trivette) is an amazing player, oh my god, what an amazing athlete, just an athlete, strong,” said Francis, whose Indians (3-10) got 11 points from Carlee Cradic and three 3s and nine points by Azzlyn Brown. “Seven games in 11 days may be too much for this group right now," Francis said.
"I like that we have learned a lot. We have gotten more out of these games than we would in practice right now so now we can go back and dial in on what we need to improve on.” FIFTH PLACE GREENEVILLE 65, TENNESSEE HIGH 55 It was Kyra Jobe in the first half and Maria Lyde in the second half.
Jobe, a University of Tennessee softball commit, scored 11 first quarter points and 18 in the first half as Greeneville (4-5) built a 31-19 lead at the break. Lyde, who scored 29 in Friday's semifinal win, tallied 19 of her 21 points in the second half after sitting out most of the opening 16 minutes with three fouls. Abby Adkins added 13 for the Greene Devils.
“I wanted to give us something from me,” said Lyde, who was 11-of-12 from the free throw line. "If it was defense, if it was offense, I didn’t want to end it on that note.” Tennessee High (6-6), which got 15 points from Chase Wolfenbarger, 14 from Addi Moore and four 3s and 12 points by Kerigan West, never got closer than six points in the second half.
"I think the most important thing is we bounced back well," said Tennessee High head coach Amanda Vance, whose Vikings defeated Volunteer on Friday after dropping an opening round game to Cocke County. "We didn’t give up, we kept fighting and I think that is a great quality in a team aspect. That is something we always preach, energy and playing hard.
We didn’t let it discourage us, we just moved on to the next game and continued to play hard.” SEVENTH PLACE ELIZABETHTON 71, VOLUNTEER 48 After seeing a pair of rallies fall short in the first two games at Viking Hall, the Cyclones left no doubt in this one. Rylee May scored 25 points and twin sister, Reagan May, added 14 as Elizabethan outscored Volunteer 21-8 over the final six minutes to pull away from the Falcons.
“They got it down to 10 and I thought our press rotated and we got some deflections that we had been preaching that we have got to have,” said Elizabethton head coach Lucas Andrews, whose Cyclones (3-11) also 13 points from Kayleyn Nave and 12 from Jamira Smalls. “Some kids rotated and responded and reacted and got some steals and some easy buckets and then just pushed it out a little farther.” Volunteer (8-7), which rallied from deficits in all three games at Viking Hall, kept battling despite an illness that has grasped much of the team.
That included Courtney Bellamy who led the Falcons with 13 points, while Emilee Maillox added 10 in the loss. "It is the time of the year. I had Courtney in there, she got sick on the sidelines halfway through the fourth quarter and came back and knocked down two 3s so you can’t question the heart of them at all, they have got some toughness to them," Volunteer head coach James Howerton said.
"We have got room for improvement, but we are still growing, our best games are still ahead of us." *** Doc Maples Holiday Hoops All-Tournament Team MVP: Karmine Carmichael, Cocke County Lauren Baker (Abingdon), Blakelyn Clevenger (Cocke County), Kyla Jobe (Greeneville), Sally McReynolds (Dobyns-Bennett), Izzy Nelson (Scottsboro), Morgan Perkins (Scottsboro), Shakyra Reed (Cocke County), Bree Sexton (Scottsboro), Annsley Trivette (Abingdon), Kerigan West (Tennessee High). 3-point champion: Tatum Shelton (Scottsboro).
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