By Michael Lindsay
The District 7-3A girls semifinal matchups are set following Friday’s first-round action at Tennessee Tech University as Livingston Academy will face Upperman while Stone Memorial will play White County.
LA opened Friday’s first-round action with a 59-28 victory over DeKalb County while Stone Memorial overcame an 8-0 deficit to defeat Cumberland County, 57-51.
Junior guard Ellie Butler led Livingston in their first-round victory with 28 points against DeKalb County. The Lady Wildcats opened the contest on a 17-5 run in the first quarter and led 29-12 at halftime.
“That’s by far the best game we’ve played all season,” said Livingston head coach Lesley Riddle. “It’s taken us a while to get Mallie-Gene (Coleman) back in rhythm and figure out how to play together.
“DeKalb would win some districts in 3A,” added Riddle. “Ella VanVranken is incredible. Any night, either team can win in this district.”
Livingston advances to face Upperman in the District 7-3A semifinals Saturday at 4 p.m.
“Upperman is very balanced scoring and they’re probably the best defensive team in the state,” said Riddle. “It’s a tough matchup.”
In the second matchup it was Stone Memorial who emerged victorious over Cumberland County, 57-51.
“It was a really good basketball game,” said Stone Memorial head coach Mike Buck. “We rallied to take a lead, but they fought back like we knew they would.”
The Lady Panthers were swept by Cumberland County in the regular season, but won Friday’s postseason elimination game over the Lady Jets.
“We didn’t do anything different,” said Buck. “We knew our scouting report defensively was right. Offensively, we just had to go execute and go score some points. You won’t beat anybody scoring 30 points.”
Stone Memorial was balanced offensively as Adison Howard led with 16 points followed by 14 from Kortney Headrick, 12 by Kailee Waldo and 9 by Rachel Houston.
Houston, who was named Stone Memorial’s valedictorian earlier in the week, scored all nine points the three-point line in the third quarter.
“She’s a super competitive athlete,” said Buck. “On the tennis court, she’s in the conversation to win state and that shows up in the classroom, too. Whatever she does, she gives her all. Crazy proud of her; she’s a four-year player for us.”
Cumberland County opened the contest on an 8-0 run before the Lady Panthers responded with a 13-0 run of their own to take a 13-8 lead midway through the second quarter.
Stone Memorial led 20-13 at halftime before extending their lead to double digits in the third quarter via a Houston three-pointer to give her team a 29-18 lead with 5:33 left in the period.
Howard followed with a three-pointer to give the Lady Panthers their largest lead of the evening (32-18) midway through the third quarter.
Cumberland County wouldn’t go away quietly as the Lady Jets reeled off a 13-2 run over the final 4 minutes of the third quarter to pull within one possession of Stone Memorial at 34-31 entering the fourth quarter.
Stone Memorial pushed their lead back to 10 points (41-31) to open the fourth quarter before Cumberland County stormed back to within one point (46-45) via a Sydney Wilhite and-one with 4:46 remaining.
The Lady Jets never retook the lead, however, as Stone Memorial held them off to win by a 57-51 final score.
The Lady Panthers will face #1 seed White County in the semifinal round on Saturday at 7 p.m. The teams split their matchups in the regular season.
“They’re really good obviously,” said Buck. “They play with a lot of passion so I expect our girls to come out and compete. There have been some really good Stone and White County games over the years.”
