BY BRIAN HAMILTON
GATLINBURG – While Gatlinburg-Pittman may have been embarking on a defense of it’s 2023 Christmas Classic title, this team is much different than the one that won it a year ago. Last season, the go-to scorers may have been Maddy Newman, Leah Stinnett and Nya Burns, but all of those faces are gone now.
Gatlinburg-Pittman’s Chloe Mejias (21) attacks the rim while being surrounded by three Cordova defenders. Photo by Brian Hamilton
This year’s version of the Lady Highlanders has seen three familiar faces step into new roles as dependable go-to scorers, and that is Maliyah Glasper, Addi Wear and Chloe Mejias. Maybe that’s the new ‘Big 3’ for this squad. All are juniors and all three had big games on Thursday night, as Gatlinburg-Pittman trounced Cordova, from Walker County, Alabama, by a score of 73-24.
Mejias had 16 points at the half and finished the game with 20.
“She’s another one of those garbage players, where she is willing to do the dirty work that others won’t necessarily do,” Gatlinburg-Pittman coach Katie Moore said of Mejias. “She always crashes the boards hard and gets on the loose balls, so I’m loving the fact that she is kind of getting rewarded for her play.”
The Lady Highlanders jumped out to a quick 6-0 lead after three layups by Maliyah Glasper, Addi Wear and Chloe Mejias. Cordova finally got on the board when a floater by Chloe Kacharos made the score 6-2 with 5:23 left in the first quarter. Three-pointers by Glasper, Wear and Tillie Trentham would help Gatlinburg-Pittman embark on a 13-0 run and take a 19-2 lead with 3:17 remaining in the opening quarter.
Ali Simon finally hit a layup for Cordova to trim the deficit to 19-4, but the Lady Highlanders held a commanding 32-6 lead after one quarter of play.
Glasper made a basket to open the second quarter, extending the Gatlinburg lead to 34-6. The junior guard then followed that with an old-fashioned three-point play to make the score 37-6.
The Lady Highlanders opened the second quarter with an 11-0 run, stretching the lead to 43-6. Mia Vance would drain a three for Cordova to pull the Lady Blue Devils to within 45-10. A layup by Kacharos would make the score 45-12, as Cordova embarked on its biggest scoring run of the half (5-0). Gatlinburg-Pittman would take a 55-13 lead into intermission.
Mejias would score on a layup to open the third quarter, followed by a midrange jumper, making the score 59-13. Vance would hit another three for the Lady Blue Devils to trim the lead to 59-16, which was followed by a traditional three-point play by Kacharos to give Cordova an 8-0 scoring run and making the score 59-21.
Maliyah Glasper (23) looks to attack the Cordova defense. Photo by Brian Hamilton
Gatlinburg-Pittman would close the third quarter on a 12-1 run, however, taking a 71-22 lead into the final quarter.
The final quarter was played with a running clock and with many reserves on the floor for both teams. The two teams each scored two points in the fourth quarter, with Ellie Rowland making the Lady Highlanders’ lone bucket on a long two-point jumper with just over a minute left in the contest. Gatlinburg-Pittman would go on to win 73-24.
“We were trying to execute our offense and trying to get as many of our kids in as we could,” Moore said of the two point fourth quarter. “At that point, we are focused on getting stops on defense and like I said, trying to run our offense. It was nice to see (Ellie) get in the scorebook.”
Maliyah Glasper and Chloe Mejias led all scorers with 20 apiece, while Addi Wear finished with 11 points.
“(In a game like this) we have to just focus on the things that we can control, like forgetting the score and just focusing on whether we can execute offensively or defensively or whatever we’re trying to do,” Moore said of the blowout win. “In a tournament, we just want to try and prepare for the next team, so we wanted to try to still get better regardless of the score.”
Cordova was led by Ali Simon’s nine points, while Mia Vance added six.
Gatlinburg-Pittman will face Moore County in the semifinal game on Friday, December 20, at 5:30 p.m. The Lady Raiders defeated Ridgeview (VA) in the first round by a score of 64-47.