MURFREESBORO — The Gatlinburg-Pittman Lady Highlanders’ shooting struggles proved to be too much to overcome as their postseason came to an end in their 62-50 loss to the McMinn Central Lady Chargers in the quarterfinals of the TSSAA 2A State Tournament.
Maddy Newman led the Lady Highlanders with 19 points, followed by Nya Burns, who finished the game with 14.
Newman led the Lady Highlanders in scoring for the season, having a year that led to being named a Miss Basketball finalist.
While it’s hard to call 19 points an “off night” Newman said there was some disappointment for not being able to do more.
“It was just kind of trying to motivate myself to do better, but it did kind of disappoint me a little bit,” Newman said. “I feel like for my team I just need to make sure that I can lead everyone. [I’m] not really frustrated, it just kind of made me upset a little bit that I couldn’t do more.”
Lefty guard Molly Masingale led the Lady Chargers. She finished the game with 29 points and shot 13/14 from the free throw line.
Newman came into the game familiar with Masingale, and knew she would be a challenge to guard.
“I’ve played with Molly before. We played in the 15U Under Armor circuit, we won the National Championship. So, I kind of know a little bit about her,” Newman said. “She’s left-handed, I think that’s something that’s a little bit harder to guard, especially because a lot of our guards are used to going to their left.”
Lady Highlanders’ Head Coach Katie Moore said Masingale was a challenge to contain.
“I think one thing is that we couldn’t defend her without fouling. We just did a poor job of stopping her from getting to the rim and/or getting fouled,” Moore said.
The first quarter was a back-and-forth affair between the two teams, trading baskets throughout, and it was not the prettiest quarter that the Lady Highlanders have seen shooting wise this season as they shot 5/12 from the field. However, the Lady Highlanders made up for that by forcing their way to the foul line, where they shot 5/7 in the quarter.
Moore said those early offensive struggles took their toll on the team for the entire game.
“We missed some easy ones around the basket, and that’s just always a gut punch for you when you miss bunnies,” Moore said. “I just think that at that point our confidence was gone.”
McMinn held onto a slight lead throughout most of the opening quarter, with their largest lead being 15-11 with under two minutes to play. Newman converted on a tough shot inside to trim that lead, and after a foul at the buzzer, Newman tied the game at 15-15 going into the second.
Burns struck first in the second quarter with a shot inside to move ahead 17-15, but the Lady Chargers quickly took back control of the lead. Baskets from Burns and Newman, as well as free throws from Gracie Valentine and Shilah Whaley continued to chip away at the Lady Highlanders’ deficit. Burns found Whaley on the block for a shot to retake the lead with less than two minutes to play in the first half at 26-25.
Burns knocked down another tough shot inside to give the Lady Highlanders a 28-25 lead, but the Lady Chargers answered before the buzzer sounded to take the game into halftime with G-P’s lead cut to 28-27.
The third quarter was the Lady Highlanders’ most efficient quarter from a shooting percentage perspective, shooting 6/11 from the field as well as 1/2 from deep in the quarter.
“I feel like we were scared in the first half. That team that showed up in the first half wasn’t the team that I’ve coached all year,” Moore said. “I thought they came out great in the third quarter, and then when adversity started coming again, we immediately lost confidence.”
The Lady Highlanders answered any Lady Charger basket with one of their own in the third quarter, moving ahead 35-32 after a Whaley 3-pointer, and again holding onto a 3-point lead, 40-37, later in the quarter. Newman converted on a shot inside with under 10 seconds to play to move ahead 42-41, but a Masingale 3-pointer at the buzzer put McMinn back in front 44-42.
The fourth quarter proved to be the toughest for the Lady Highlanders, only putting up 8 points as a team, with the only field goals coming from a Leah Stinnett 3-pointer and layup. Forcing the foul, G-P put McMinn at the line for most of the fourth. However, McMinn would make 14/18 foul shots in the quarter, pulling away to take this one 62-50.
The Lady Highlanders struggled at the foul line, which is not typical of the team.
“We had a hard time knocking down free throws down the stretch which usually we do a pretty good job of,” Moore said. “I just kind of thought offensively the whole night we were kind of out of sync. McMinn Central did a great job of getting us out of our system.”
The Lady Highlanders also faced a challenge in the final minutes when forced to foul a team that shot over 80% from the foul line for the game.
“You’re trying to guess, and that’s kind of what we’re talking about ‘don’t foul 5, don’t foul 20, they’re their best free throw shooters’ and then we pick 15 and what do you know, she drains two,” she said. “It’s extremely frustrating and you’re just trying to figure out at this point what you can do. They even missed a couple down the stretch, we just couldn’t convert offensively.”
While their second straight trip to the state tournament ended sooner than they would have liked, Moore said the toughest part is waiting for their next chance to avenge the loss.
“It’s so frustrating because at this point you go home thinking I now have 365 days that I have to wait before I get that opportunity again,” she said, “It’s a little frustrating, but knowing that I’m getting the core of my team back, we have a bright future. I just hate it for them that we got cut short.”
Although the Lady Highlanders lose Shilah Whaley and Kendl Reagan next season, they do bring back a core group from this year’s team. Combine that with Maliyah Glasper set to take the floor for the Lady Highlanders next year after being sidelined for her freshman season due to an injury, the Lady Highlanders are hopeful to make it back to the Murphy Center next season.