WHITWELL, Tenn. - A scrappy third-quarter run was not enough for Whitwell's girls' basketball team to overcome a sluggish start as visiting Jackson County won 53-37 in a Region 3-A quarterfinal Friday night.
"That first quarter really killed us," Whitwell coach Eric Zensen said. "We really played them pretty even from that point on, but we were just having to dig ourselves out of an early hole and that changed a lot for us.
"We're a team that relies so much on being able to press and speed up the tempo, but we couldn't press in the first quarter because we couldn't get a shot to fall. We had some good looks; we just couldn't score."
The Lady Tigers' outside shooters were ice cold in the first quarter as Jackson County (16-13) built a double-digit lead. The visitors pulled ahead by 20 early in the third quarter before Whitwell (12-15) took advantage of Lady Devils point guard Kaitlyn Pippin having to sit with her fourth foul, which led to 11 straight points by the hosts to end the period.
Whitwell even had possession of the ball early in the fourth with a chance to cut further into the deficit, but the Lady Devils answered with a 14-2 run of their own to pull away and end Whitwell's season.
"We told our team it was very important to get off to a good start on the road," Jackson County coach Jim Brown said. "We've lost a few this year that we shouldn't have just because we didn't start the game well. This is a loud place, and we needed to make sure we didn't give them any momentum or the crowd any reason to make it even louder."
Jackson County's Bella Wilmoth connected on her first two 3-point attempts in the game's opening minutes, and post player Kyleigh Hardy had double-figure scoring by halftime. Hardy finished with a game-high 20 points, and Wilmoth added 11.
No Whitwell player finished in double figures, but Ally Grayson led the way with nine points.
"It was really just one of those nights, honestly," said Zensen, whose team ended the game making just 26 percent of its field goals. "We had a good season and I'm proud of our girls, but we just couldn't put the ball in the basket at times tonight, and that got us."
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com. or 423-757-6293.