Meigs County's Kassidy Kenny (23) shoots and avoids the block of Heritage defender Emily Wiley (4) in the closing minutes of the girls 4 p.m. semi-final game Friday afternoon in the Best of Preps tournament at Chattanooga State.Halfway through the third quarter of Friday's first girls' semifinal in the Times Free Press Best of Preps basketball tournament at Chattanooga State, it seemed the game between Meigs County and Heritage would go down to the wire.
Instead, the final score made it seem like it was never close at all.
The beginning of the end for the Lady Generals started with a Lady Tigers' run of 19 points in succession, and Meigs went on to win 73-47.
Meigs (14-1) will play Baylor in tonight's championship game, which is scheduled to tip off at 7. Heritage (8-5) is set to play Rhea County at 4 p.m. in the third-place game.
The Lady Tigers never trailed in their semifinal, which was tied once at 3-3. But their only double-digit lead through the first three quarters was 20-9 after Kassidy Kenny converted a layup after a turnover with 1:51 left in the first quarter.
The Meigs run that made it 61-40 came after Ansley Bice's deep 3-point shot from left of the key with 3:47 to go in the third quarter had pulled Heritage within two.
"They turned up the pressure, and really we got in foul trouble," said Heritage coach Eddie Bryant, whose team was without Ariana Camp, who has suffered injuries to both ankles recently. "We were down a starter, and things kind of mushroomed on us. It seems like when you get a call against you, it's kind of like a snowball going downhill. They have a good ball team. Give them credit. They did what they had to do."
It was the Lady Tigers who had the foul trouble in the first half, committing eight in the first quarter. But they stayed aggressive throughout and held the Lady Generals without a field goal for nearly nine minutes in one stretch in the second half.
"We tried to speed the game up as much as we could," Meigs coach Jason Powell said. "The third and fourth quarters we kind of switched our defense around a little bit. We went to a different type of press. We got some easy baskets, and we made some big (3-point) shots out there and kind of stretched it out a little bit."
Kenny, a sophomore, paced the victory with a career-high 37 points that included three 3s and 16-of-21 free-throw shooting.
"The thing I liked was I thought all her shots were good shots," Powell said. "When she drives, she can wiggle around a little bit and she finishes really well."
Freshman backcourtmate Jacelyn Stone, who had three fouls in the first half, added 15 points. Jade Meadows scored eight before fouling out with 3:14 to play.
Emily Wiley's 19 points led Heritage, which had two players foul out, and Bice supported her with 13.
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him on Twitter @KelleySmiddie.