North Middle School’s girls basketball team won the Section 1 Area 5-AA title Monday with a 34-20 win over Meigs Middle School.
Playing on their home court in a packed gym, the Lady Stars shot out to an early lead and never gave it up to claim their second title in their third consecutive championship game appearance.
“Just super proud of these ladies,” Rachel Gray, NMS head girls basketball coach, said. “They are scrappers. From the first of the game to the end of the game, they executed our game plan to the tee and I’m so super proud of them, how they worked so hard all year and especially this game. They wanted it.”
NMS got off to a perfect start when Kiera Cooper stole the ball mid-court and raced to the basket for an and-one a minute into the game, and then followed with four more points to put her team up 7-0 halfway through the quarter.
Though Meigs hit back, the Lady Stars led 7-4 after six minutes and never let their opponents narrow the deficit to less than three points.
The second quarter followed a similar script, as North once again came out firing to go 8-2 in an early three-minute spell. Meigs narrowed the gap late for the second consecutive quarter, but could not prevent a 15-11 lead by halftime.
“We have a little bit of a tendency to kind of not start playing until later in the half, so I said, ‘Look, this is a good team and if you want to get this, you got to get on them first thing’,” Gray said. “And so they did. One of the key things that had to be done is they had to get after it first thing.”
The Lady Stars continued the pattern in the third quarter with six points in the first minute for their first double-digit lead of the night before a more even back-and-forth settled into place. The two teams mirrored blow for blow the rest of the quarter until a late free throw cut the lead by one, leaving NMS with a 25-16 advantage heading into the final quarter.
Neither team scored in the opening two minutes of the fourth, prompting Gray to call a timeout with 3:56 remaining. The adjustments made during the break got both teams going as each scored two baskets within the next minute. A second timeout with just over 90 seconds remaining and the score 28-20 had a similar effect for the Lady Stars, with Cooper scoring her 15th and 16th point of the night within the minute.
“(Cooper)’s very important as far as running our offense — she’s one of our key players,” Gray said. “But I don’t want to just isolate Kiera. Every one of these girls that put in any time out there is worthy of praise.”
With the score 31-20 with 30 seconds to go, Meigs had to foul North’s players to regain possession. Carlee Daugherty made three of four attempts from the line to secure her team’s win at 34-20, prompting wild on-court celebrations by players and fans alike as the buzzer went off.
Gray said her players would get the day off Tuesday as a reward, but they would be back in the gym today as they look to continue their postseason run. The Lady Stars qualified for sectionals for the third year in a row and will play Loftis Middle School at a yet-to-be determined time Saturday at Cleveland Middle School.
“Sectionals is usually just take one game at a time,” Gray said. “So I’m just going to give them the day off and then we’ll hit it hard on Wednesday.”
Two more headed for sectionals
Though North was the only county school competing in a championship game Monday, two more local schools will compete in this year’s sectional tournament after clinching third place in the consolation game.
Lenoir City Intermediate/Middle School’s girls lost to NMS in the semifinal in dramatic fashion, but rallied for a win over Sweetwater Junior High School to book a third consecutive sectional appearance.
The semifinal, a rematch of the previous two championship games, went down the wire as North took a one point lead with just under a minute left. LCIMS had the chance to get the win 15 seconds from time from the free-throw line, but two missed shots had them miss out by a 30-29 scoreline.
They had little time to wallow in their misfortune, however, as they found themselves playing the tournament’s No. 1 seed Monday for the final sectional spot. After a rough first quarter, the Lady Panthers pulled together to win 33-29.
“Losing by one Saturday was tough, but there was no time to be upset about it,” Amber Henderson, LCIMS head girls basketball coach, said. “My girls were able to regroup and refocus and … were able to put out the No. 1 seed of the tournament and advance to sectionals.”
Having made the championship game the previous two seasons, this will be the third consecutive trip to sectionals for LCIMS, and Henderson said they are aiming high.
“My girls are focused,” she said. “They play for each other and they aren’t ready for that to end. We’re hoping to make a deep sectionals run. I believe they can do it, and I’m excited to be a part of it.”
For the boys, Fort Loudoun Middle School experienced a similar fate as LCIMS, though with a more painful semifinal defeat.
Playing Athens City Middle School, the Braves led 51-50 with just 12.5 seconds to go and drew a foul for a chance to put the game to bed. However, in the aftermath of the foul, a technical was awarded Athens. After FLMS missed both free throw attempts, Athens made no mistake from the line to take the lead at 52-51. A second pair of successful free throws sealed the win for Athens at 54-51.
As a result, FLMS dropped to the consolation game and took on North’s boys for the final sectional spot. Like the LCIMS girls, they quickly overcame their semifinal disappointment to comfortably win 51-39.
“It’s crazy, because me and my assistant, we’re still like we don’t even know how we lost that (semifinal) game,” Candics Jones, FLMS head boys basketball coach, said. “So in our head, we’re thinking what are our kids going to be like? But our kids are competitors, they’re raised right and they just keep battling, so we couldn’t be more proud of the way they played today.”
Jones said even though the tournament did not go as planned, closing out with a win over a county rival felt good. Looking forward to sectionals, he said his team would take one game at a time.
The LCIMS girls and FLMS boys start sectional play Saturday at Cleveland Middle, with times and opponents undetermined as of News-Herald presstime.
