Lady Cyclone’s quick start spells end for Lady Vikings in region semifinals
Published 10:28 am Tuesday, February 28, 2023
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Star Photo/Ivan Sanders
Elizabethton’s Lina Lyon directs the offense while pushing the basketball toward the paint.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders
Tennessee High had a hard time stopping the hard-charging play of Renna Lane in the first half.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders
Lady Cyclone Olivia Holly works the basketball in front of the Tennessee High bench.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders
Elizabethton’s Katie Lee has a clear look at a three-point attempt in the first half of Monday’s game won by the Lady Cyclones.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders
Lady Cyclone guard Maddie Fowler looks to work the basketball into the middle.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders
Renna Lane of Elizabethton drives the basketball toward the baseline while being guarded closely by a Lady Viking defender.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders
Olivia Holly pulls the trigger on a three-pointer. Holly collected six treys in the contest.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders
The Elizabethton student body gets caught up in the craziness of the regional semifinal Monday in John Treadway Gym.
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Elizabethton head coach Lucas Andrews knew coming into the game that the matchup with Tennessee High could have been a hijacking game should his team come in overlooking a team that the Lady Cyclones had already beaten three times previously by a large margin.
With that in mind, the Lady Cyclones never allowed the Lady Vikings to get their bearings as the region host Lady Cyclones blew out to a 15-2 lead by the first horn and rolled to an easy 70-39 victory to secure a spot in the region finals against Greenville on Wednesday night at John Treadway Gym.
The win guaranteed the Lady Cyclones a sectional contest on Saturday with a shot at a second straight trip to Murfreesboro for the BlueCross Girls’ State Basketball Championship in their crosshair.
Pesky senior point guard Lina Lyon didn’t miss a beat picking up where she left off against Claiborne Co. in the quarterfinals scoring 14 of her game-high 23 points in the first half as the Lady Cyclones built a 36-12 halftime lead.
Lady Cyclone Renna Lane wasn’t about to let her team get off course as the senior attacked the basket the entire first half scoring 10 points, hitting 6-of-7 from the charity stripe after getting hammered on drives to the basket.
Junior post Marlee Mathena and senior guard Olivia Holly found their shooting marks on the floor adding six points apiece as Mathena was deadly from around a 10 to 12 foot perimeter while Holly was torching the nets from beyond the three-point arc.
Tennessee High meanwhile had six different players knock down a deuce each.
The Lady Vikings came out of the locker room with a little more spark and kick in their step but it was going to be too little too late for the girls from Bristol as the Lady Cyclones outscored their opponent 36-27 in the final 16 minutes of play.
Holly followed Lyon up in the scoring column as the sharpshooter finished the game with six treys and a free throw for 19 points. Mathena finished her night with 11 points while Lane made the fourth Lady Cyclone in double figures with 10 points.
Katie Lee contributed five points in the victory with Reiley Whitson and Sadi Williams finishing off the scoring with two points apiece.
Kendall Cross led the Lady Vikings in the loss with nine points. Anna Kate added four points while Keeqanah Fonte chipped in with five points.
Elizabethton will face a Greenville team that barely survived a determined Cocke County team that forced overtime with a running three-point shot to send their game to overtime before running out of gas and players in overtime.
“I thought our kids executed what we wanted to do on defense by running a lot of sets and a lot of four high stuff and a lot of picks and backdoors,” said Andrews.
And even though Lyon scored at will, one of the things that most people overlook. “Just tonight, Cross is a fantastic point guard and is one of those kids who is right handed but rather go left and if you have not done your homework and study on what they do, they are going to get you in some situations. Lyon did her homework and knew the move they were going to make.”
Game time will be 7 pm Wednesday night. The winner of Wednesday’s game gets a home sectional on Saturday while the loser will have to go on the road.
“I think it is going to take each other,” said Holly about getting the outcome the Lady Cyclones want in the regional championship. “We are going to have to help each other because they are a really good ball team. I think we need to just to take it one game at a time.”
The two teams remaining in Region 2 AAA are Knox Halls (24-7), a 57-35 winner over Northview Academy (21-11), and Seymour (25-9), a 65-34 winner over Clinton (16-15).
