Lady Cyclones storm through tournament for district title
Published 8:01 am Tuesday, February 19, 2019
Star Photo/Bryce Phillips Elizabethton head coach Lucas Andrews coaches the Lady Cyclones.
Star Photo/Bryce Phillips Elizabethton's Kaylen Shell fights for position.
Star Photo/Bryce Phillips Elizabethton's Abbey Townsend puts up a jumper.
Star Photo/Bryce Phillips The Lady Cyclones Torrie Roberts looks for an open teammate.
Star Photo/Bryce Phillips Elizabethton's Kaitlin Bailey goes up for a rebound against Sullivan South.
Star Photo/Bryce Phillips Elizabethton's Kaitlin Bailey celebrates with teammate Cheyenne VanHuss after VanHuss knocked down back-to-back 3-pointers during a Lady Cyclones rally during Monday's district championship.
Star Photo/Bryce Phillips District 1-AA Tournament MVP Kaitlin Bailey pulls up a jumper.
Star Photo/Bryce Phillips The Elizabethton Lady Cyclones are the 2019 District 1-AA champions after topping Sullivan South during Monday's championship inside Happy Valley High School.
Star Photo/Bryce Phillips Elizabethton's Kaitlin Bailey (MVP), Morgan Headrick, Torrie Roberts, and Kaylen Shell were all named to the 2019 District 1-AA Girls All-Tournament Team Monday night.
Star Photo/Bryce Phillips The Lady Cyclones pose for photos after winning the District 1-AA Championships.
Star Photo/Bryce Phillips Elizabethton's Kaitlin Bailey celebrates with the Lady Cyclones after winning the district championship.
The Elizabethton Lady Cyclones came into the District 1-AA Tournament seeded fifth.
For Elizabethton, however, their seeding didn’t indicate anything as they made easy work of their tournament opponents. Monday night, the Lady Cyclones scooted past Sullivan South, 56-42, for the District 1-AA title.
Monday night’s win comes after the Lady Cyclones defeated Happy Valley, 51-30, in the quarterfinals and No. 1 seed Sullivan Central, 53-34 in the semifinals.
Elizabethton head coach Lucas Andrews said that the Lady Cyclones’ tournament run began before the tourney even started back when the Lady Cyclones upset conference front runner the Lady Cougars, 61-56, at Sullivan Central.
“The win at Sullivan Central, the look on their faces was totally different,” said Andrews. “These kids have grind all year. They have faced adversity. Sick, hurt, you name it, something went wrong all of the time. When you turned the corner, somebody else would end up hurt. We finally got a full roster. Some are still hurt but that win just boosted us and gave us some confidence.”
The Lady Cyclones had three players hit double-digits with Morgan Headrick knocking down 16 points while tournament MVP Kaitlin Bailey and Kaylen Shell each had 13.
Elizabethton knew that one of the keys to beating Sullivan South would be to make sure that Lady Rebels sharpshooter Alex Harris didn’t get off too many open shots. Harris would knock down a pair of threes in the second quarter. Andrews would then shift Bailey, a 6-footer, out to the top of key on defense to help force Harris to take contested shot. Harris would only hit one more outside the shot in the third.
“In the last five games, she has been averaging 20 points a game,” said Andrews about Harris. “We have recognized who is doing what for the other teams, and the girls have done a great job doing that. I believe she got one clean shot off and the rest of them were contested. And she made some of them those.
“After she made some of those, we decided we had to get some length on her,” added Andrews.
The Lady Cyclones jumped on South early, taking a 12-6 lead after one. In the first, Headrick and Elizabethton’s Cheyenne VanHuss would each knock down a 3-ball while Shell collected four points and Bailey had a bucket.
The Lady Rebels open the second quarter with a 3-pointer from Harris. Shell, however, answered with a trey of her own. That shot would spark an 11-point run by the Lady Cyclones, a run that saw VanHuss sink back-to-back 3-pointers before Bailey blocked a trey by South and scooped it for a layup that gave EHS a 23-11 lead. The Lady Cyclones would take a 29-18 lead into the half.
After outscoring the Lady Rebels 12-11 in the third, the Lady Cyclones would go 11-of-14 from the foul line in the fourth to fend off any chance of a Sullivan South come back.
Elizabethton will now host Cumberland Gap on Friday for the Region 1-AA opener. The Lady Panthers fell 54-51 to Greeneville in the District 2-AA consolation game. South Greene comes out of District 2 as the champions after defeating Grainger 54-40 in the title game.
