Young Lady Dragons will get third test against Halls for district’s top spot
Coming into the 2022-23 season, Clinton High School girls basketball Coach Alicia Brown made it no secret that despite having a young team, she had high expectations.
The campaign had its share of land mines and pitfalls as the young Lady Dragons made their way through a tough schedule.
But Brown made it clear that she wanted to see her team play for a District 4-AAA Tournament championship.
And the Lady Dragons punched their ticket to the title game with a 54-36 victory over Anderson County Thursday night, winning on their home court at the Don W. Lockard Gymnasium.
Freshmen Josie Moody and Lanee Carmichael led the way for second-seeded Clinton (15-13) in its third victory of the season over the Lady Mavericks (9-20).
Carmichael had a game-high 22 points, while Moody chipped in with 20 for the Lady Dragons, who were tested early.
Clinton hosted top-seeded Knoxville Halls in Tuesday night’s district championship game. Results were not available at press time.
The Lady Devils swept the Lady Dragons during the regular season. Those setbacks were CHS’s only two league losses of the season.
“We played them tough at home,” Brown said. “We were short-handed against them over there and we got down by 20 early.
“But our girls are eager and we know that it’s hard to beat a team three times.”
Clinton may be young. Thus the Lady Dragons have a bright future ahead, but Brown is looking for a big finish this year.
“I’m excited to see how these girls play over the next two or three years, but we’re also playing for now,” she said.
By virtue of the victory in last week’s semifinals, Clinton will host a Region 2-AAA Tournament quarterfinal Friday night.
The Lady Dragons finished off a three-game sweep against the Lady Mavericks Thursday, but the game proved to be tough for Clinton early.
ACHS was down 12-8 before the Dragons cashed in on a turnover and scored five points in 10 seconds.
But poor shooting would doom ACHS, according to Coach Mitch Cupples.
“The simple answer is that we just didn’t shoot very well,” Cupples said. “We were two-for-16 from beyond the three-point line, and we shot 28 percent (from the field) for the game.
“The other simple answer was offensive rebounding. They had 18 offensive rebounds and we only had eight. They had 20 more shots than us. They shot 35 percent, so they didn’t shoot very well either. They just took more shots than we did.”
Shelby Kelly led Anderson County with 11 points, and Lydia Meldrum added nine.
