Lady Highlanders advance to District 1-A Championship
Published 8:31 am Tuesday, February 19, 2019
KINGSPORT – In the semifinal opener on Saturday at J. Richard Carroll gymnasium at Sullivan North, the Hampton Lady Bulldogs fell behind early and dropped a 47-34 decision to North Greene. The Lady Huskies led 22-15 at the half and opened a 33-20 lead midway through the third period.
A pair of 3-ball’s from Brooke Hughes enabled Hampton to pull to within 34-26 going into the fourth quarter. Huskies post Charlotte Raschowski scored a game-high 13 points with Breanne Savage, Shelby Davenport and Anna Reed each adding 11.
Senior guard Stephanie Campbell led the Lady ‘Dogs with nine points with fellow senior Leann Guinn chipping with eight.
Game two
Boys semifinal
University High 61, Unaka 42
The number one in the district seed held firm and the Buccaneers ran away from Unaka in the second half. UH outscored Unaka 34-18 in the second half to break open what had been a close game in the first half.
The first half was the Kaleb Meredeth / Isaac Hill show as Meredeth scored 17 of his game-high 24 points in the first half while Hill was good for 14 first-half points for the Rangers. Meredeth had a steal and a bucket as the third quarter buzzer sounded and the Bucs took a 41-34 lead into the fourth quarter.
With UH leading 45-38 the Bucs went on an 11-point run to open a 56-39 lead before a Will Sexton free throw ended the run.
Game three
Girls semifinal
Cloudland 35, Unaka 26
A low scoring defensive struggle saw Cloudland pull out a win mostly by hitting free throws down the stretch. The Lady Highlanders hit 7-of-8 from the line in the fourth quarter to pull away from a 21-20 third-quarter lead.
Senior post Myah Parlier scored a game-high 15 points but got little support as the rest of the Lady Rangers managed just 11 points total. Trinity Vines was 6-for-6 from the line and scored a team-high 10 points as Cloudland advances to face North Greene on Tuesday in the championship game.
Game Four
North Greene 44,
Hampton 36
North Greene trailed the entire game until the fourth period when trailing by five points went on an 11 point run to open a 36-30 lead. Hampton led 8-0 early and 15-6 at the end of the first quarter.
The Bulldogs went into the break with a 26-15 advantage but the Huskies hunkered down defensively and outscored Hampton 10-5 in the third period to make it a 30-25 game going into the fourth quarter.
Tom Skorich and Kendall Loftis led the way back for North Greene scoring all 11 points in the run between them. Skorich finished with 12 points while Loftis led the team with 13. The Huskies pulled to a 40-32 lead on the strength of back-to-back buckets by Skorich and Chase Malone.
Jordan Bentley led all scorers with 14 points for Hampton who uncharacteristically scored just 10 second-half points.