BY BRIAN HAMILTON
GATLINBURG – The Lady Highlanders trailed by nine points at halftime and whittled away at that deficit all third quarter. Gatlinburg-Pittman trimmed that deficit to four after three quarters and finally took the lead and control of the game early in the fourth, to win 62-56.
“I thought, other than the second quarter, I thought we played a pretty good game,” Gatlinburg-Pittman head coach Katie Moore said after the game. “I thought we kinda fell apart in the second quarter and got out of our system, started fouling some. Northview is a very good team, so you really can’t take any quarters off if you expect to beat them.”
The win was the Lady Highlanders’ third in four days after scheduling CAK on a whim on Friday and winning. That win, coupled with the NVA win, gave Gatlinburg-Pittman a win over the top-ranked Division II Class A team and a win over a ranked Division I Class 3A team.
“Hopefully the snow is going to be gone, so we can get the district tournament and all of the fun part (of the season) out of the way,” Moore said. “I talk a lot about hoping that we’re playing well at the right time, towards the end of February is when you want to be rolling.”
Gatlinburg-Pittman’s Reese Ownby (24) attempts to go up with a rebound while NVA’s Natavia Alber defends. Photo by Brian Hamilton
The two teams played on December 11 at Northview Academy and the Cougars came away with a 58-52 win. The Lady Highlanders looked determined to avoid the same result on Saturday during their senior night.
“We’ve just got to do a better job of taking care of the ball,” Northview head coach Brooke Shelley said after the game. “The same thing happened last night in the Seymour game. We came out last night, just like today, and I felt we played really well in the first half, but we just stopped taking care of the basketball (in the second half), and we’ve just got to take care of the ball.”
The two teams came out hot in the early going, as the two teams traded punches and leads in the first quarter.
Kiley Norwood scored the first points of the game on a three-pointer, which gave Northview Academy an early 3-0 lead. Reese Ownby answered with two straight layups to put Gatlinburg-Pittman ahead 4-3.
A three-pointer by Addi Wear would stretch the GP lead to 7-3, capping a 7-0 run for the Lady Highlanders. Mikinna Russell answered with a triple to make the score 7-6 with 5:31 left in the first quarter.
Wear hit her second three-pointer midway through the first quarter to put Gatlinburg-Pittman in front 10-6, but Russell answered with a midrange jumper to make the score 10-8. The Lady Highlanders took a 12-8 lead on a layup by Ownby, but Nora Auten hit a three-pointer to cut the deficit to 12-11 with just over four minutes remaining.
Northview Academy took its first lead of the game when Natavia Alber hit a long-rang two-pointer to make the score 13-12. A three by Maliyah Glasper put Gatlinburg-Pittman back in front 15-13, but Russell tied the game at 15-15 with under three minutes to go.
A rebound and layup my Alber put Northview Academy back in front 17-15, but a three-pointer by Wear — her third of the first quarter — put the Lady Highlanders back in front 18-17 with 1:02 left in the first period. The two cross-county rivals were tied at 19-19 after one quarter.
Wear hit her fourth three-pointer of the game early in the second quarter to give Gatlinburg-Pittman a 24-21 lead, but back-to-back baskets by Alber put the Lady Cougars back in front 25-24.
A layup by Auten extended the Northview lead to 27-24, but a three from the top of the key by Gabriella Cameron tied the game at 27-27 midway through the second quarter. From that point on, the Lady Cougars would dominate the second quarter, outscoring Gatlinburg-Pittman 9-0 to close the half.
Northview’s Kiley Norwood (30) blocks a shot by Cheyenne Byrd (24) during the first half. Photo by Brian Hamilton
Savannah Clifford scored on a layup and was fouled, but missed the free throw, putting Northview in front 29-27 with 3:49 left. A pair of free throws, followed by a conventional three-point play by Russell would extend the NVA lead to 34-27 with under two minuted until halftime. The Lady Cougars added a pair of free throws to take a 36-27 advantage to intermission.
“In the second quarter, I really felt like we were settling too much for the three-point shot, because they’re a lot bigger than us, and that kind of took us out of our attack game,” Moore said. “We also started fouling them and they were getting to shoot free throws and they’re really good free-throw shooters, so they were able to hit those.”
A steal and layup by Addi Wear would cut the Gatlinburg-Pittman deficit to 36-31 early in the third quarter, but a layup by Alber would stretch the lead back to 38-31.
A three-pointer by Maliyah Glasper would trim the deficit to 38-34 with 5:32 left, but Alber would answer with a layup again to push the NVA lead to 40-34.
Gatlinburg-Pittman would continue to chip away at that nine-point halftime deficit throughout the third quarter, keeping the deficit between six and four throughout. A pair of Glasper free throws would cut the GP deficit to 47-43 late in the quarter. The senior guard had a chance to cut it to one, but her buzzer-beating three-pointer was off the mark, leaving the score at 47-43 heading to the final period.
Glasper nailed a three to open the fourth period to make the score 47-46, then on the next Gatlinburg-Pittman possession, she hit a layup to give the Lady Highlanders a 48-47 lead, their first lead since early in the second quarter.
A layup by Ownby stretched the Gatlinburg-Pittman lead to 50-47, but Norwood would tie the game at 50-50 with a three-pointer midway through the fourth quarter.
Glasper hit a layup to stretch the Gatlinburg-Pittman lead to 54-50 with 2:46 left in the game. The Lady Highlanders would lead by as many as 57-51 when Cheyenne Byrd scored a pair of free throws with 1:27 remaining.
Natavia Alber (2) goes up for a basket over Gatlinburg-Pittman’s Cheyenne Byrd (24). Photo by Brian Hamilton
A pair of free throws by Northview Academy’s Norwood would pull the Lady Cougars to within 57-53. Gatlinburg-Pittman got the lead to 60-53 on a pair of Glasper free throws, but Norwood answered with a three to trim the deficit to 60-56 with 47 seconds remaining.
Northview Academy stole the ball on the next Gatlinburg inbounds, but Alber missed a three from the top of the key and Glasper pressured Chloe Henshaw into a steal and took it the other way for a layup to to win 62-58.
“In the third quarter we decided to play defensively without fouling and we came up with some stops, and we were able to cut into that lead, and then Maliyah (Glasper) caught fire in the fourth quarter,” said Moore.
Maliyah Glasper led all scorers with 24 points, while Addi Wear also finished with 18 for the Lady Highlanders.
“Obviously, we know (Maliyah) is an incredible player and what she has done here is absolutely amazing, and I’m sure excited to see what she does at the next level,” Shelley said. “She just kind of dominated the second-half. She just said, ‘I’m not going to lose on senior night.'”
Northview Academy was led by Navatia Alber’s 15 points, while Kiley Norwood finished with 13. Mikinna Russell added 12 points for the Lady Cougars.
Gatlinburg-Pittman (21-3, 6-0 Class 2A District 2) extends their winning streak to 13 games and will host Claiborne (5-12, 1-3 Class 2A District 2) on Tuesday, before traveling to Claiborne next weekend for their season finale. Both games against the Bulldogs had to be rescheduled due to winter weather during the last two weeks.
Northview Academy (18-4, 6-2 Class 3A District 3) will travel to Austin-East (11-11, 3-3 Class 3A District 3) on Tuesday.