By Rusty Ellis
MURFREESBORO – The Pickett County Lady Bobcats are Class A State Championship bound as they erased an early 13-point deficit in a 59-54 win over Wayne County on Friday afternoon in the state semifinals.
The Lady Wildcats held all the momentum early, as they raced out to a 15-2 lead and forced two Pickett County timeouts in the process. PCHS battled back, using a three-point play from Emmy Lowe and a layup from Zoey Nicholas to cut the lead down to 23-16 heading into the second quarter.
There, Addy Lowe buried a pair of threes off the bench to cut further into the deficit, as the Lady Bobcats trimmed the lead down to 29-27 on a Callie Reeder three-point play. Wayne County responded with a run of their own to close the quarter, but after the early double-digit deficit, head coach Brent Smith reminded his team they were right there, only down 37-31 at the half.
“I don’t know how to describe it, this bunch is just different,” Smith said. “Down six at the half, they shot 60% and we were only down six. We knew we had a shot, that’s what we talked about.”
The third quarter saw Pickett County build more momentum, cutting the lead down to 37-35 after a pair of baskets from Nicholas and Lowe. Wayne County built the lead back to eight after a Jacqueline Keaton layup made the score 43-35. The Lady Bobcats closed the frame on a 10-4 run however, and trailed just 47-45 heading to the fourth.
There, Addy Lowe drilled another three on the opening possession to give Pickett their first lead of the game at 48-47, and with 3:30 to go in the game, Reeder drained a three to give the Lady Bobcats a 54-50 lead.
After Emmy Lowe split a pair of free throws to give PCHS a 57-54 lead with 12 seconds remaining, Nicholas swiped the ball and finished off the win with a layup, as Pickett knocked off Wayne County 59-54 to clinch their spot in the Class A State Championship.
“We just care about each other, tonight we played (like it),” Smith said. “We just kept fighting and kept believing…it just feels great.”
Just a year removed from experiencing heartbreak in the first round against Hampton, the Lady Bobcats now find themselves in a place they started believing they could be all season long. Emmy Lowe says that loss fueled them to work harder than ever before to achieve this goal.
“It means a lot because last year, we were expecting so much and we were just a young team,” Lowe said. “We’ve always felt like this year was our year, our mentality has changed and so much about the culture has changed.”
Fresh off of a game-high 20 points, Nicholas uncorked all of her emotions at the sound of the buzzer, something she’s not done in the past.
“It’s one of the best feelings I’ve ever felt,” Nicholas said. “I’ve learned this year that I’ve just got to let loose. I can’t hold back, the emotions are just too much…I feel like if we have emotion on the floor, it just gets our team going.”
The Lady Bobcats will now take on Moore County on Saturday at 3:30 P.M., and Smith believes they’ve still got some really good basketball left to play.
“We’ve changed our whole mentality this year,” Smith said. “We’ve done everything we can to change the culture here, and we’re not done yet.”
