Gatlinburg-Pittman Middle School State Champions

Gatlinburg-Pittman Middle School girls celebrate state championship with net-cutting ceremony

BY BRIAN HAMILTON GATLINBURG – Last week, Gatlinburg-Pittman’s junior high girl’s basketball team held a net-cutting event to celebrate the team’s recent state championship, a 25-18 win over E.O. Coffman, which was played at Stewarts Creek High School in Murfreesboro. “It’s awesome, I’m not going to lie to you,” Gatlinburg-Pittman head coach Alex Bowers said. “It’s been awesome this week.” The week got even better for Bowers, as Gatlinburg Mayor Mike Werner and Gatlinburg City Manager Greg Patterson showed up to present the team with a proclamation, celebrating the hard work and success of the players and coaches. The Gatlinburg-Pittman …

The King's Academy

Big fourth quarter sends Lady Lions to fourth straight Final Four

BY BRIAN HAMILTON SEYMOUR – “I memorize the basics. Making strange faces. Tread slowly, for I know, there’s a thousand miles to go.” “This is the night, this is the sound. Here comes the warm machine.” The lyrics of the song “Warm Machine” by the alternative rock band “Bush” can resonate with most Lady Lions fans because this team has already been in the position of needing to win the region with a lower seed after losing the district semifinal to Grace Christian. Just one season ago, The King’s Academy lost in the district semifinals to Grace Christian and then …

Northview Academy vs Austin-East

Lady Cougars survive Austin-East comeback attempt, advance to district championship

BY BRIAN HAMILTON SEYMOUR – Northview Academy suffered a 60-53 loss to Austin-East back on February 10 and the Lady Cougars would have the opportunity to extract revenge in the district semifinals on Saturday night. Northview closed the first half with a 12-0 run and that proved to be just enough to hold off the pesky Lady Roadrunners in the end, as the Lady Cougars had to stave off a late comeback for a 52-48 win. “All season, we’ve said they are a really good basketball team and they’re going to be right there and they’re going to give themselves …

Cocke-Seymour

Cocke County uses 20-0 run to take down Lady Eagles and advance to district title

BY BRIAN HAMILTON SEYMOUR – Cocke County used an early 20-0 run to jump out on Seymour and never looked back, as the Lady Red defeated the Lady Eagles 56-20 en route to their third consecutive district title game. “Everybody is zero and zero right now,” Cocke County coach Boddie Bible said after the game. “Everybody wants to beat the number one seed coming and we’ve played here a couple of weeks ago and Seymour played us a good game. I challenged them to guard and we guarded phenomenally tonight. We fouled them a few too many times on jump …

Johnson-Brenau

Lady Royals win thriller behind Tollett’s stellar fourth quarter

BY BRIAN HAMILTON KNOXVILLE – Emery Tollett scored 17 points in the fourth quarter and made the game-winning block to seal the Johnson victory over Brenau on Saturday afternoon, but it was Megan Biliter that put her in position for the game-winning block, as Biliter had just scored a layup to give the Lady Royals a 73-72 lead with two seconds remaining. “Emery Tollett just took over,” Johnson head coach Bryon Lawhon said after the game. “She wasn’t going to lose. She wasn’t feeling great today and the first three quarters were a little emotional, but in the fourth quarter …

WSCC-Pellissippi State

Griffin sets all-time scoring record in win over Pellissippi State

BY BRIAN HAMILTON KNOXVILLE – Terryauna Griffin was back in her hometown of Knoxville on Wednesday night, where she needed only one point to clear the 1,000-point threshold and nine points to set the all-time scoring record at Walters State. Griffin hit 1,000 early in the first quarter on a jumper and she would break the scoring record on the first play in the first quarter when she stole the ball and took it for a layup. “Clearly, for the program and for her, it’s great,” Walters State coach Jasmin Coleman said after the game. “You work hard and Griff, …

Walters State-Dyersburg State

Lady Senators thrash 2nd-place Dyersburg behind Griffin’s 38 points

BY BRIAN HAMILTON MORRISTOWN – Walters State dominated second-place Dyersburg State 80-41 on Saturday afternoon, as Terryauna Griffin torched the Eagles for 38 points, to give her 999 for her career. She is now only nine points away from breaking the all-time scoring record at Walters State. “I just talked to them (in the locker room) about all the roles that everybody has to have,” Walters State head coach Jasmin Coleman said. “Everybody will look at Griffin and see 38 points, and that’s great, but they don’t see Anaya Mulholland-Natt, who has held every leading scorer on every team, including …

Smoky Mountain Girls Basketball Top 10 Rankings (2/15/26)

Bearden (26-3, 12-0 Class 4A District 4) Cocke County (26-4, 10-0 Class 3A District 3) Gatlinburg-Pittman (23-3, 8-0 Class 2A District 2) Alcoa (20-7, 8-0 Class 3A District 5) Sevier County (18-5, 6-0 Class 4A District 2) The King’s Academy (23-8, 11-2 DII East Region District 1) Heritage (23-5, 6-2 Class 3A District 5) Northview Academy (20-5, 7-3 Class 3A District 3) Farragut (20-9, 10-2 Class 4A District 4) Morristown East (20-6, 6-2 Class 4A District 1)

Seymour vs Austin-East Girls

Tidwell lifts Lady Eagles over Austin-East on layup with 3 seconds remaining

BY BRIAN HAMILTON SEYMOUR – The game was tied at 56-56 with under 20 seconds to go with third-place in Class 3A District 3 hanging in the balance. That’s when Seymour’s Bailey Tidwell took a handoff from Kali Fisher and drove down the lane for a game-winning layup with three seconds remaining, giving the Lady Eagles a crucial 58-56 district win over Austin-East. “It was huge,” Seymour head coach Lindsey Koeneman said after the win. “We talked about how important this game was and how important our defensive effort was going to have to be. We were going to have …

TKA vs Grace Christian

Lady Lions suffer difficult loss to Grace Christian in district semis

BY BRIAN HAMILTON KNOXVILLE – The King’s Academy swept Grace Christian in both regular season meetings and throughout most of the game, it looked as if the Lady Lions were going to take a third game from the Lady Rams, but Grace Christian hit big shots in the fourth quarter, while TKA went cold for much of the period, falling in the district semifinals by a score of 54-51. “We just had some mental letdowns and they hit some big threes and we’ve got to respond,” TKA head coach Dante Turnipseed said after the game. “We say that basketball is …