BY BRIAN HAMILTON
GATLINBURG – The Class 2A District 2 championship has gone through Gatlinburg-Pittman and Alcoa the last four years, but with Alcoa moving to 3A, there was room for a new challenger.
This year the championship game featured a new participant, as Pigeon Forge defeated Cumberland Gap in the semifinals to advance to the title game. Gatlinburg-Pittman wasted no time in claiming its fourth district title in five years, as the Lady Highlanders jumped out on Pigeon Forge early, building a 21-3 lead en route to a 73-38 win.
Gatlinburg-Pittman’s Chloe Mejias (21) tosses up a layup after Pigeon Forge’s Ashlyn Finch (11). Photo by Brian Hamilton
The win earned Gatlinburg-Pittman its second consecutive district title.
“I think they know any time you play a team three times, it’s very difficult,” Gatlinburg-Pittman coach Katie Moore said after the game. “We’ve been on the flip side of that, where a team has beat us twice and we’re ready to come out and get them, so I think they anticipated Pigeon Forge being ready to come out and play tonight.”
Chloe Mejias put Gatlinburg-Pittman on the board with a jumper to make the score 2-0, but a layup by Makaylee Stalcup tied the game at 2-2 with just under six minutes remaining in the first quarter.
Addi Wear hit a three to put Gatlinburg-Pittman back in front 5-2, followed by a steal by Maliyah Glasper, who passed it ahead to Cheyenne Byrd for a layup to make the score 7-2.
Wear followed that with another three-pointer to make the score 10-2, which was followed by a reverse layup by Mejias to give Gatlinburg-Pittman a 12-2 lead. The Lady Highlanders would stretch their run to 14-0 after Glasper sank a long two-pointer and Mejias hit a jumper, making the score 16-2 with just under three minutes left.
Pigeon Forge finally stopped the bleeding when Ellie Sami made 1-of-2 free throws to make the score 16-3, but the Lady Highlanders would continue their onslaught, as a layup by Annie Ogle and a three-pointer by Glasper stretched the lead to 21-3 with 32 seconds left in the quarter.
Ashlyn Finch scored a layup with seven seconds left in the quarter to give the Lady Tigers their first field goal since the score was 2-2, but Glasper would make a layup at the buzzer to give Gatlinburg-Pittman a 23-5 lead after one quarter.
Pigeon Forge’s Mia Woodrick hit a basket to make the score 26-9 early in the second quarter, which was followed by a layup by Stalcup to trim the Gatlinburg lead to 29-11 with 5:27 left.
Wear hit her third three-pointer of the game to give Gatlinburg-Pittman a 35-11 lead with 3:49 left in the first half, Pigeon Forge would follow that with a layup by Woodrick to make the score 35-13.
A layup by Mejias with 21 seconds left would give Gatlinburg-Pittman a 41-16 lead, but Rylinn Ginter hit a layup with seven seconds left to cut the Pigeon Forge deficit to 41-18 at the half.
Gatlinburg-Pittman freshman Ryleigh Rogers (14) puts up a three during the Lady Highlanders’ district championship win. Photo by Brian Hamilton
Chloe Mejias opened the second half with a three-pointer to give Gatlinburg-Pittman a 44-18 lead, which she followed with a layup to push the lead to 46-18 with 4:32 left in the third quarter.
A layup by Pigeon Forge’s Rylee Rawlings made the score 46-20, but Caitlin Hamilton answered with a three to put the Lady Highlanders in front 49-20.
Wear hit a three-pointer — her fourth of the night — to give Gatlinburg-Pittman a 53-24 lead with 44 seconds left, but Pigeon Forge’s Fitch nailed a three at the buzzer which capped a 6-1 Lady Tiger run to end the third quarter. The Lady Highlanders went to the fourth quarter leading 54-30.
Reese Ownby sank a pair of three throws to open the fourth quarter, followed by a Glasper three-pointer, to put Gatlinburg-Pittman ahead 59-31 with just over six minutes left.
Wear’s fifth three-pointer of the game stretched the GP lead to 30, at 64-34. Freshman Ryleigh Rogers got in on the action with a three to extend the lead to 67-34 with three minutes remaining, which was followed by another freshman, Caitlin Hamilton, letting two defenders run by and hitting a layup to a 69-34 lead.
Gatlinburg-Pittman would go on to win 73-38 to capture its second consecutive district championship and its fourth in five years.
Maliyah Glasper (23) goes up for a layup between two Pigeon Forge defenders. Photo by Brian Hamilton
“I don’t think they were trying to take anything away from Pigeon Forge, but going down the stretch, we’ve been really talking about and focused on being attentive to details, and so we pointed out some things that we wanted to make sure we focused on tonight and we said if we did those things correctly, the points would come and I really think they did that,” said Moore. “Those things were taking care of the basketball, and we set a goal of trying to get 18 steals and I think we were able to get that, and then not allowing more than four offensive rebounds, which I am pretty sure we ended up not reaching that goal, but other than that, I think we did all of the rest.”
Maliyah Glasper led all scorers with 18 points, while Addi Wear finished with 17 points and hit five three-pointers in the contest. Chloe Mejias finished with 13 points, while freshman Caitlin Hamilton added nine.
“I thought Maliyah played really good,” Moore said of the district tournament MVP. “Defensively, she always gives us a spark by either getting a loose ball, causing a deflection or something like that. She’s very dynamic in the open court and she can get to the rim anytime she wants. She’s actually done a much better job of finishing around the rim, as opposed to earlier in her career, so I think that she’s just now become a complete package.”
No scorers finished in double figures for Pigeon Forge, but Mia Woodrick and Ashlyn Finch finished with nine points apiece, while Makaylee Stalcup added eight.
Gatlinburg-Pittman (25-3) will host Chuckey-Doak (7-23) on Friday night in the region quarterfinals, while Pigeon Forge (13-9) will host Johnson County (10-14) on Friday.