JONESBOROUGH — The magic carpet ride finally came to an end for the David Crockett girls basketball team.
Behind the brilliant second-half play of senior point guard Maci Pitner, Seymour took out the Lady Pioneers in Friday’s Region 1-AAA quarterfinal, 54-52 in overtime.
Pitner finished with 20 points, including 14 in the latter half of the ballgame.
The Lady Eagles (20-8) moved on to face Sevier County in Monday’s semifinals.
“We were just telling the girls in the locker room that they’re a bunch of fighters,” Crockett coach Thomas Gouge said. “They were down five with like 50 seconds left and they never gave up. We had opportunities at the end, but we couldn’t get over the hump. Seymour is a great team and they’re very offensively skilled.”
Crockett (14-9) miraculously got back into the game with a little less than 50 seconds left in overtime and trailing by five points. Senior Emma Gouge, who tallied a game-high 21 points, nailed an up-and-under shot and the ensuing free throw after Crockett got a timely turnover. That cut the deficit to one, 53-52.
Pitner was fouled at the other end and made her first attempt but missed the second.
On the inbounds, Gouge was fouled coming down the court with 0.7 left and facing a 1-and-1 situation. She missed the first and Seymour corralled the rebound as time expired.
“There’s a reason why (Pitner) is the player of the year in the conference and she’s our horse,” Seymour coach Greg Hernandez said.
The Lady Pioneers took a hot-shooting Seymour team, which made 17 shots from distance in a recent contest, completely out of rhythm from the start. The Lady Eagles went 4-for-16 from distance but made up for it by making 50% from inside the arc (18-of-36).
Bailey McCoy (11) and Katelyn Waggoner (10) also finished in double figures for Seymour.
Crockett shot 22-for-58 from the floor and committed 19 turnovers, including three critical ones in overtime.
The curtain fell on a season of firsts for Crockett, which swept rival Daniel Boone in the regular season for the first time in its 50-year history; beat Dobyns-Bennett for the first time in 16 years; and played for the District 1 tournament championship for the first time since moving from District 2 in 1995.
“I’m so proud of this team and they’ve changed the culture of this program,” Coach Gouge said. “We sat down to count the firsts for this team and there were like 11 or 12 of them. It’s unbelievable the work that these girls have done and what they’ve overcome.”
