HIGH SCHOOL

Gatlinburg-Pittman's season ends in state semifinals

Troy Provost-Heron
USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee

MURFREESBORO — Words like “Mountain Tough” and “Believe” were written across the arms of every member of the Gatlinburg-Pittman girls basketball team.

For everything the community of Gatlinburg and the surrounding areas have been through in lieu of the wildfires in December, those words provided a constant reminder of what the Lady Highlanders were representing each game.

“Every time we go to a game, it’s an opportunity for our community to get together and not have to worry about thinking about those things and just focus on us,” Gatlinburg-Pittman coach Katie Moore said. “The longer our road has lasted for us has been great for our community.”

Gatlinburg-Pittman's Sophie Henry, left, dribbles past Pearl Cohn's Shanice Nelson during a Class AA state semifinal game on Friday at the Murphy Center in Murfreesboro..

On Friday, Gatlinburg-Pittman’s season came to an end, but not without a fight.

The Lady Highlanders found themselves battling a sizeable deficit in the second half before clawing back into the game. The rally, however, was not enough as they fell to Pearl Cohn 63-56 in the Class AA state tournament semifinals at Middle Tennessee State’s Murphy Center.

“I believed until the very end (we were going to come back),” Moore said. “It would have been very easy for them to go out and hang their heads and pout around, but I thought they stuck in it until the last buzzer buzzed.”

It was the first trip to the state tournament for Gatlinburg-Pittman (28-5). To get to the semifinals, G-P erased a five-point deficit in the final 1 minute, 18 seconds of regulation Thursday to force overtime, and beat Westview 54-51.

Gatlinburg-Pittman puts pressure on Janiah Sandifer in the closing minutes of Friday's Class AA  state semifinal game in Murfreesboro.

The Lady Highlanders attempted to make yet another comeback Friday, but this time it was not enough.

Pearl Cohn (25-4) used a 13-0 run between the 3:11 mark of the second quarter and the 5:36 mark of the third to turn a four-point lead into 17, and eventually pushed that out to 23. Trailing 51-29 with 6:09 left to play, the Lady Highlanders managed to outscore Pearl Cohn 28-12 to close out the game.

“It feels good that we had a team that fought to the very end,” senior guard Qua Hines said. “I just know the mountains were happy that we fought today.”

The Lady Highlanders had four scorers finish in double figures. Shelby Moore led the way with 13 points, while Hines added 12 and Rylie Patterson and Ivy Bales chipped in 10 apiece.

Janiah Sandifer tallied a game-high 22 points for the Lady Firebirds, while Shawnta Shaw added 18.

Pearl Cohn will play Upperman for the Class AA state championship at 3:30 p.m. Saturday.