McMinn Central girls basketball in position to win first state title since 2011

MURFREESBORO - Before McMinn Central girls basketball drove three hours to Middle Tennessee State's Murphy Center to play in the state tournament for the first time since 2016, the players paid visits to important places. 

Sophomore guard Reagan Baker said players visited their old grammar schools and were able to take the good wishes from those who helped them reach this point. 

“We had a big send-off,” Baker said. “We went to all our elementary schools and they gave us a parade as we left.” 

Star junior guard Molly Masingale explained that the Chargerettes' time this week at the state tournament is bigger than just individual accomplishment. 

“I think it means a lot to our community,” Masingale said. “So not only are we playing for ourselves, but we’re playing for our community and other little girls that watched us as we were 10 or so years ago.” 

McMinn Central will continue to represent its community after defeating Gibson County 58-50 in the Class 2A semifinals Friday. The Chargerettes will play Westview (32-1) in the championship game at 7:30 p.m. ET Saturday.

MCMINN REACHES SEMIFINALS:Molly Masingale drives McMinn Central girls basketball past Gatlinburg-Pittman in TSSAA quarterfinal

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Sophomore guard Karin Bystry led McMinn Central (28-7) with 27 points. She also had seven rebounds and made four of six 3-pointers.

Gibson County (28-9) was led by senior guard Evyn Cantrell with 23 points but also had nine turnovers. 

Bystry scored 10 points in the third period for McMinn Central. Gibson County coach Mitch Wilkins said Bystry was an issue for his team.

“She’s a good player,” Wilkins said. “Good players make good plays and we tried to limit her as much as we could. She went through a stretch where she was really on top of her game. 

The Chargerettes’ second leading scorer was Masingale who had 12 points but only made one of 12 shots. She compensated for the poor shooting by having 10 rebounds, six assists, five steals and one block. 

“I know in my mind when I’m not scoring, I need to help my teammates in other ways,” Masingale said. “So I needed to trust my teammates, give them the ball, Karina had an amazing shooting night so I knew I needed to help my team in other ways just besides scoring.”

Masingale had 29 points in the quarterfinal win against Gatlinburg-Pittman on Thursday and after a stat-sheet-stuffing performance Friday, she said she was reminded of how she watched as a child. 

“Before we came up here on the trip, actually, my mom had Facebook memories and it was like all of us here as little kids watching the state tournament,” Masingale said. 

The goal for her along with the rest of McMinn Central is to make new Facebook memories for themselves as well as their community by bringing the gold ball back to McMinn Central for the first time since 2011.