Lady Dragons play short-handed to finish Farragut tournament
Lady Dragon Naiyah Sanders drives against Heritage early in the season. (photo:Tony Cox )
But things didn’t stay knotted for long as the Lady Patriots turned up the defensive pressure and pulled away en route to a 78-55 victory at the Lynn E. Sexton Gymnasium.
The Lady Dragons and Lady Patriots were tied 22-22 after the opening frame as Clinton answered every punch that Jefferson County threw.
The Lady Dragons entered the tournament short-handed as one player was in quarantine and another was ill, according to coach Alicia Phillips.
“We were pretty gassed,” Phillips said. “We didn’t have a full (roster). We have one (player) in quarantine and we have another that has been sick for a while.
“We’ve played six games in like eight or nine days. These teams are better competition than we see in our district. Hopefully, by the time district starts (this) week, we’ll have a full roster.”
Short-handed or not, the Lady Dragons (2-4) proved to be competitive over the first eight minutes of the contest. But in the second stanza, the Lady Patriots (2-2) employed a half-court trap and that defense baffled the Lady Dragons, who committed several turnovers that led to easy layups for Jefferson County, which trailed 6-3 early. Clinton scored just nine points in the second frame and found itself behind 44-31 at halftime.
Phillips said she would like to see her squad be more aggressive.
“They were aggressive,” Phillips said of the Lady Patriots. “We need to be the aggressors. We need to get better at the little things.
“We had too many turnovers and they had too many runouts.”
Jefferson County’s defense continued to stifle Clinton’s attack in the third quarter. The Lady Dragons didn’t score a point for nearly four-and-a-half minutes to start the second half. Sarah Burton ended Clinton’s scoring drought with a layup that made the score 56-33 with 3 minutes, 37 seconds remaining in the third quarter.
Burton finished the game with 30 points. Jaz Moore and Belle Starnes scored nine points each.
Jefferson County boasted a balanced scoring attack. Alexa Gramann had a game-high 36 points and Kali McMahan added 16. Zoie Denton scored eight and Tara Scales finished with six.