BY BRIAN HAMILTON
SEVIERVILLE – The last two meetings between Sevier County and Morristown East were in the district and region championship games last season, with the Lady Hurricanes winning both. TSSAA realignment moved Sevier County to District 2, while Morristown East stayed in Region 1, and the two teams had not met since.
Bearettes coach Jonathan Shultz said that he was eager for the possibility of this matchup once he saw the region tournament brackets.
“When the (regional) bracket came out and we were both the 1-seeds, I saw that there was a good opportunity for us to try to get some revenge on the team that made it hard for us to get back to the state (championships) last year,” Shultz said. “We came up a point short and you think, in a one-point game, if we’re not at Oak Ridge and we’re at home, that one-point, we may have overcome that. It felt really good to kind of get an opportunity to relieve ourselves.”
Sevier County’s Hannah Madison goes up for a layup while being fouled. The sophomore finished with a game-high 17 points. Photo by Brian Hamilton
The Lady Hurricanes got off to a fast start and led at halftime, but Sevier County put on the clamps in the second half, holding the Lady Hurricanes without a field goal in the third quarter, as the Bearettes went on to win 46-40 to claim its 5th region championship in six years.
“In the second half (our goal) was to just stop giving them shots in transition,” Shultz said. “They’re a team that relies on transition so much to get their open threes and we just wanted to get in front of them and make them dribble the ball up the court, so that we could find them and matchup and I thought the girls, in the second half, really defended the three-point shot really well.”
“I don’t think they changed much schematically (in the second half),” said Morristown East coach Justin Combs. “They continued to run their 2-3 zone that they’re known for and that they’re so good at. I just felt like we stopped attacking the way we were in the first half. Our spacing got bad at times and we just didn’t get people in the spots they needed to be in to execute.”
Sevier County got on the board first on a layup by Hannah Madison, but Kennady Phillips answered with a layup of her own to tie the game at 2-2 with just under seven minutes left in the first quarter.
Morristown East led 5-2 after Phillips split a pair of free throws and Molli Stuffle hit a long two-pointer. Madison would respond with a layup to pull the Bearettes to within 5-4 with 4:49 left.
Sevier County would take a 6-5 lead on a basket by Aubree Thompson, but Hannah Hall answered with a free throw line jumper to give the Lady Hurricanes a 7-6 lead midway through the first period.
Riley Forester sank a three for Morristown East, which was followed by a layup by Hall to put the Lady Hurricanes ahead 12-6 with 2:34 remaining.
Neither team would score again until Kaliyah Burden was fouled and converted a three-point play with 48 seconds left, as the Bearettes went to the second quarter trailing 12-9.
Morristown East’s Jaelyn Valentine hit a triple to open the second quarter, giving the Lady Hurricanes a 15-9 advantage. Burden answered on the other end to make the score 15-11.
A layup by Stuffle would push the lead to 17-11, but Burden was fouled on a three-pointer on the other end and converted all three to make the score 17-14.
Thompson hit a layup to trim the East lead to 17-16, but Valentine nailed a three on the other end to give the Lady Hurricanes a 20-16 lead. Morristown East would take a 23-16 lead when Hall scored and converted the three-point play with 2:24 left in the first half.
Thompson hit a three on the other end to pull Sevier County back to within 23-19, which was followed by a Madison layup, as the Bearettes went on a 6-0 run to make the score 23-22.
Hannah Hall hit a three to give Morristown East a 26-22 lead, but a layup by Burden with 16 seconds left would send Sevier County to the half trailing 26-24.
Sevier County took its first lead since 6-5 when Hannah Madison hit a layup to make the score 27-26 with 5:29 left in the third quarter.
Morristown East would retake the lead 28-27 on a pair of Kennady Phillips layups, but Madison scored a basket and converted the conventional three-point play to give the Bearettes a 30-28 lead. Madison would follow that with another layup to stretch the Sevier lead to 32-28 with 1:50 left.
A Thompson layup put the Bearettes ahead 34-28 with 32 seconds left. Phillips converted a pair of free throws with 12 seconds left to make the score 34-30.
Maggie Townsend was fouled and sent to the line, but the junior missed both free throws, as Sevier County took a 34-30 lead into the fourth quarter.
Morristown East’s Hannah Hall (25) looks to dish out an assist, while Sevier County’s Maggie Townsend (12) and Kaliyah Burden (2). Photo by Brian Hamilton
Stuffle drained a three to start the fourth quarter, cutting the Morristown East deficit to 34-33. A midrange jumper by Hall would later tie the game at 35-35 with 2:08 left.
Madison made a layup with just under two minutes remaining to give Sevier County a 37-35 lead. Burden split a pair of free throws to put the Bearettes in front 38-35.
Stuffle was called for over and back on the next trip up the court, which gave the ball back to Sevier County with 1:02 remaining.
The Lady Hurricanes fouled Aubree Thompson and the sophomore went to the line and sank a pair of free throws for a 40-35 lead.
Riley Forester hit a three with four seconds left to cut the Sevier County lead to 44-40, but it was too little, too late, as Townsend went to the line and converted a pair of free throws to give the Bearettes a 46-40 win.
Sevier County’s Hannah Madison led all scorers with 17 points, while Kaliyah Burden finished with 13. Aubree Thompson added 11 for the Bearettes.
“Hannah has came along and has become another offensive threat for us,” Shultz said after the game. “She’s improved as much as any player we’ve got and the guards are doing a better job of finding her inside whenever she has position and I thought she had a great game tonight. We needed every bucket from her that she got.”
Morristown East was led by Hannah Hall’s 14 points, while Molli Stuffle and Kennady Phillips finished with seven apiece. Jaelyn Valentine and Riley Forester also added six each for the Lady Hurricanes.
“On the defensive end, I challenged (Madison) and Maggie Townsend to keep Hall off the offensive glass,” Shultz said. “That was the key of the game, keeping her off the offensive glass. She’s their all-time leading rebounder and she had, I think, 17 rebounds in the semifinal game. Last year, her put backs were the difference in the games, so to keep her off the glass was huge. We are 21-0 now when we out-rebound our competition.”
Shultz says the revenge tour does not end with Morristown East, as Sevier County (25-5) will host Farragut (23-11) and Grand Canyon signee K.J. McNeely on Saturday night for a trip to go to state.
“They’re a good team and they’re usually a good team,” Shultz said. “They’re one team that we’ve not beat in the substate since I’ve been here. We’ve seen them one time and that time we saw them, they had another Division I player (Avery Strickland) and it was a close game, but they ended up getting the W, so that’s another chance at redemption. Maybe not so much for the girls, but for me, as a coach, because only a few of the girls were here when we played them last time.”
Morristown East (25-7) will travel to Bearden (31-3) on Saturday night to try and overcome the Lady Bulldogs and Miss Basketball candidate Natalya Hodge for a trip to state.
“Our backs are up against the wall,” Combs said after the game. “It’s going to take the best effort that we have to go there and have an opportunity to win, but it’s what we’re faced with. It’s just the challenge that’s at hand and we’ve got to bounce back from this and figure out what went wrong in the second half and try to get better from it and go down there and give it our best shot on Saturday.”