GATLINBURG — The Gatlinburg-Pittman Lady Highlanders got their basketball season off to a good start Monday night with a 59-47 win over the visiting Hancock County Lady Indians.

“I thought we controlled the pace of the game pretty good,” said G-P coach Mike Rader. “We were going full blast on offense until the last two or three minutes, when we slowed it down.”

The Lady Highlanders opened up a double-digit lead early in the fourth quarter, but when Hancock’s Carla McDaniel hit a trey with 3:48 in the game, G-P’s edge had suddenly shrunk to 51-45.

But G-P freshman Karsen Sims answered with a nice drive to the basket for a deuce, and senior Leah Bryan followed with a field goal and a pair of charity shots to stave off the Lady Indians’ dreams of a comeback.

G-P junior Beka Owens led the Highlander effort with 14 points, including two shots from downtown.

Junior Makenna Lewis provided a huge spark off the bench with 11 points, and junior Morgan Dodgen was the other Lady Highlander in double digits with 10 ticks.

In her first varsity start, Sims turned in a nice effort with six points in the win.

Bryan had eight points, junior Lacee Tinker had five, junior Stephanie Taylor had three and junior Macy Shults had two.

G-P next plays at TKA tonight at 6:30 p.m. tonight, followed by boys’ action at 8 p.m.

mpsports@themountainpress.com