TAD girls beats Science Hill, fall to I-Trail

By Michelle Pope
STAR STAFF
mpope@starhq.com
The Lady Jr. Cyclones took one step forward and another backwards on Tuesday as the varsity team defeated Science Hill 37-26, and the JV team fell to Indian Trail 36-24.
Janey Robinson opened the varsity game by scoring six points, and Kyla Jones hit a basket to give Elizabethton the 8-0 lead. Robinson's first shot was a three-pointer, and for the second she put up a rebound after Jones' steal and layup drive.
Kelsi Menner stopped the Cyclone run for the Jr. Lady Hilltoppers with a layup. Leah Henson put another Jr. Lady Cyclone rebound through the hoop for ten, followed by a basket and trey from Jasmine Treadway. Jordan Douglas scored Science Hill's second basket from a pass in, to make the score 15-4 in Elizabethton's favor.
"T.A. Dugger is a great team, and they've got a great coach," said Science Hill's varsity coach Tony Spears. "They're always well-prepared and it's fun to play them. Basically, anytime you play T.A. Dugger, you know they're going to be excellently prepared. They do a great job."
The Jr. Lady 'Toppers got a foothold in the second quarter, since Elizabethton's only basket was a pass from Hannah Fritz that Mariah Pietrowski put in. Science Hill saw scoring from Kaitlin Bevins, Rachel Shaw, and Menner. The half ended with Elizabethton in the 17-10 lead.
"They sat down; they didn't want to play," Elizabethton coach Angie Barker said of her varsity team. "I'm not sure they wanted to be out there at all. If you don't hustle, and you don't give a hundred percent, you don't win ball games. We threw the ball away -- we had 17 turnovers."
After the locker room pep talk, the Science Hill girls came back out and continued their aggressive defense and quick offense. Alexis Fields led the Jr. Lady Hilltoppers' ten-point quarter by sinking four points. Robinson made a field goal for Elizabethton, and Henson added two points from a Kelli Culler drive to take the 21-20 lead back from Science Hill.
"The game got out of hand early, but we fought back," Spears said. "We started getting a little bit of pressure on them. I think our press started causing them a little bit of trouble. We tried to deny number 24 (Jones) the ball. They like to get it to her and get it down the court, but we tried to take her away and make somebody else handle the ball."
In the final quarter, Henson put in four unanswered points and Jones went six for eight on foul shots, in addition to a field goal for a total game-high 10 points.
"The coach did a good job of getting her girls recomposed and went back out. They hit some shots, we missed a couple of layups," Spears said.
In the 7th-grade game, what started out as an even game, with a tied first quarter, turned into big victory for Indian Trail with the help of leading scorers Johnesia Good and Jaime Hill pitching in 12 and 13 points, respectively.
Pietrowski sank two baskets and Kelly Aubrey made two free throws to give the Jr. Lady Cyclones six, while Good, Hill, and Jasmine Foster contributed two points each for Indian Trail. An eight-point second quarter from Good led the way to 12 points against Elizabethton's four scored by Madisson Barnett.
"Big people didn't step up. We didn't play our game; we played their game," Coach Barker said. "We pushed, and rushed, and as far as the JV goes, we had kids step up that hadn't been stepping up, and playing hard, but everybody else just sat down."
Pietrowski added four in the third, while Barnett scored on two foul shots, and Brittney Michael added a free throw to give Elizabethton seven points. In the fourth, Pietrowski put in five more for a total of 13 game points, while Madison McKinney added a basket for another seven-point quarter.
However, an eight-point run late in the final quarter put Indian Trail in the 36-20 lead. The 14-point quarter, courtesy of six points from Hill, and four each from Michelle Bunting and Jasmine Foster, held Indian Trail in the lead to finish the game 36-24.
"That was good for our girls," said Indian Trail coach David Whaley. "We played hard. It was a tough, physical game, and that's what we needed. We did enough things at the end of the game to win. It was a good game."