State Bound!!!… Lady Cyclones face little resistance in blowing past Northview Academy in sectionals
Published 1:11 am Sunday, March 6, 2022
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Star Photo/Ivan Sanders
Elizabethton's Katie Lee lines up one of her two three's she connected on in the first quarter of the sectional game against Northview Academy.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders
Lady Cyclone Renna Lane has to contorted to an odd angle to get a shot off against the Northview Academy defense.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders
Olivia Holly finds her spot on the floor and lets the ball fly towards the goal for a trey.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders
Lina Lyon slices through the Lady Cougar defense like a Ginzu knife.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders
Elizabethton's Marlee Mathena takes the basketball to the rim for an easy deuce.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders
Lady Cyclone Reiley Whitson quickly pushes the basketball up the floor for Elizabethton.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders
Lady Cyclone head coach Lucas Andrews is deeply involved in the sectional contest against Northview Academy.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders
The Elizabethton Cheerleaders entertained the crowd during halftime of Saturday's sectional game. Cassidy Estep flies high during a stunt.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders
Tears of joy flowed on Saturday night after Elizabethton down Northview Academy in the Class 3-A Sectionals at Elizabethton High School. Here, Olivia Holly's eyes are filled with tears as she embraces teammate Renna Lane.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders
The Elizabethton Lady Cyclones celebrate winning their sectional contest against Northview Academy to advance to the 2022 BlueCross State Championship.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders
The Elizabethton Lady Cyclones celebrate their sectional victory over Northview Academy.
BY IVAN SANDERS
STAR SPORTS EDITOR
At the end of the first quarter of Saturday’s Class 3-A sectional between Elizabethton and Northview Academy, the question was probably not if the Lady Cyclones were going to advance to the Class 3-A BlueCross State Championships, but how many points the difference of the game would be.
Elizabethton took advantage of poor shooting and decision making by the young Northview Academy Lady Cougars and totally dominated the visitors from the Sevierville area, 61-19.
The win sends the Lady Cyclones (27-6) to a Wednesday morning meeting with Upperman (29-5) at 10 a.m. central, 11 a.m. eastern at Middle Tennessee State University’s Murphy Center.
Elizabethton blitzed out to a 26-9 halftime advantage as the large, mainly black-clad Cyclone fan base, sensed that the Lady Cyclones were well on their way.
Katie Lee, back after a missing some games due to illness, was filling up the nets early as she totaled eight points in the first quarter, including two from behind the three-point arc.
Lina Lyon picked back up from where she left off at Greeneville as the junior guard sliced and diced her way to eight points as well. Renna Lane totaled a pair of field goals in the half with Olivia Holly and Maddie Fowler sinking a trey each.
Regan Brown and Savannah Bates scored three apiece to pace the Lady Cougars in the opening half.
Coming out of the locker room, the Lady Cyclones amped it up even further as they simply ran off from the visitors outscoring Northview in the second half 35-10 to put an exclamation on the victory.
Lyon once again led the Lady Cyclones with 19 points coming off an MVP performance in the regional tournament. Marlee Mathena hit double figures as well with a strong, closing fourth quarter where she score eight of her 10 points.
Holly finished with three treys and nine points while Lee and Lane finished with eight points apiece.
Brown led the Lady Cougars with 10 points in the contest.
Lyon said that winning the sectional had a whole different feel than when the Lady Cyclones lost in the sectional in her freshman year.
“Our freshman year when we lost the substate game, it was the worst feeling in my life, but it feels so good to come out here and win,” said Lyon after the win. “I cannot wait to play in that big gym and win a state championship.”
Lee also had a bad taste from the freshman year sectional loss and she was determined not to have that same feeling again.
“During our freshman year, we had a chance and I didn’t want to go through that feeling again of watching another team cutting down our nets and I was going to do anything to win this game,” Lee said. “I thought that we were pretty full force at the beginning of the game but for me when I looked up at the end of the first quarter and it was 20-5, I was like we’ve got this there is no turning back now.”
“We knew what they had and what they were good and I thought our girls studied the game plan,” said Lady Cyclone head coach Lucas Andrews. “You can give these girls any game plan and they are going out and executing it making us look smarter than we really are. They had a look in their eye on Thursday.”
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Elizabethton, 61-19
Northview Academy (19)
Leny Torres 3, Regan Brown 10, Jordan White 1, Savannah Bates 3, Camryn Brown 2.
Elizabethton (61)
Olivia Holly 9, Lina Lyon 19, Renna Lane 8, Marlee Mathena 10, Maddie Fowler 6, Reiley Whitson 1, Katie Lee 8.
Northview Academy …. 4 5 6 4 – 19
Elizabethton……………… 20 6 16 19 – 61
By the Numbers
19
Elizabethton’s Lina Lyon
scored the same amount
of points as Northview
in the game.
42
Point-difference in
the game.
7
Total number of threes in
the contest by the Lady
Cyclones.
