Belgreen ends Red Bay's dominance at county tourney

By Staff
Scot Beard
RED BAY – When Amber Smith walked onto the court at Red Bay High School Saturday night for the championship game of the Franklin County Basketball Tournament, she knew this would be her last chance to try and end the Lady Tigers' string of 11 consecutive county titles.
By halftime Smith and her Belgreen teammates looked in control with a 14-point lead.
When she fouled out with 1:08 remaining in the fourth quarter, Smith walked off the court with Red Bay trailing by three. Smith said as she walked to the bench she was a little worried that Red Bay would complete the comeback.
"I felt we could win. I had confidence in the people on the court," Smith said. "I told Loren (McVicker) and all the people who were in there to stay up and finish it off. We wanted it bad enough I knew we could pull it off."
Moments later Smith and her teammates celebrated a 51-45 victory that ended a three-year losing streak to Red Bay in the finals of the county tournament.
Belgreen coach Shauna Humphries summed up the win in three simple words.
"It's about time," she said. "I was thankful when the buzzer finally went off."
Belgreen took control of the game in the first quarter with a strong defense that pestered the Lady Tigers and prevented them from finding their shots on offense. Red Bay scored eight points in the opening quarter, but six of them came from the free-throw line.
Belgreen, on the other hand, settled into the game early and built a 16-8 lead by the end of the first and increased its advantage to 30-16 by halftime.
Humphries cautioned her team at halftime not to get too confident.
"At halftime I told the girls Red Bay would not lay down."
Humphries was right. The Lady Tigers outscored Belgreen 15-7 in the third quarter to shave the deficit to six points.
Red Bay continued to fight back, despite having several players in foul trouble for most of the second half, and cut the score to 45-41 late in the fourth quarter.
Smith hit a 3-pointer moments later to put Belgreen up by seven. Red Bay's Morgan McKinney hit a pair of free throws before Smith fouled out and Hannah Sharp converted both free throws to cut Belgreen's lead to 48-45.
McVicker, Erica Smith and Katy Britton each added one free throw each for Belgreen down the stretch to seal the win for the Lady Bulldogs.
McVicker scored a game-high 12 points and pulled down 10 rebounds for her second double-double of the county tournament. She said this win will help the Lady Bulldogs as they finish out the regular season and look towards the playoffs.
"Now we know we can do it," McVicker said. "We can take on anybody if we play as a team."
Lydia DeVaney added 11 points for Belgreen while Brooke Davis scored 10. Also scoring for the Lady Bulldogs were Amber Smith (7), Katelin Barber (6), Erica Smith (3), Anna DeVaney (2) and Britton (1).
McKinney led Red Bay with 11 points while Hannah Sharp scored nine points. Also scoring for the Lady Tigers were Caitlin Childers (8), Jade Ezell (6), Taylor Hester (4), Leah Fuller (3), Morgan Mason (3) and Whitney Sharp (1).
Humphries said the team did not discuss the fact that Red Bay had defeated Belgreen in the finals the previous three seasons and tried to focus on what they needed to do to win the game.
"We tried not to talk about it being Red Bay," Humphries said. "We knew we had to play like we could play and not let up."
Red Bay coach Donnie Roberts said he was proud of how his team played and that the slow start hurt the Lady Tigers chances of beating Belgreen.
"All year long we have not been able to get off to a good start," Roberts said. "I'm proud of the way the girls played tonight. They gave their all tonight and that is all you can ask for."
Red Bay 54,
Tharptown 45
The Lady Tigers earned another trip to the championship game by rallying past Tharptown for a 54-45 win Friday night.
Whitney Sharp scored 20 points to lead Red Bay while Childers added 12 points. Also scoring for Red Bay were Hannah Sharp (8), Fuller (6), McKinney (3), Hester (2) and Mariah Horton (2).
Kendra Baker scored 12 points to lead Tharptown while Chelsea McCluskey and Kamri Sears scored eight points each. Also scoring for the Lady Wildcats were Breadon Sellers (4), Heather Horton (3) and Tosha George (2).