Lady Dragons outlast rival for district title
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Clinton girls basketball Coach Alicia Dougherty raises a piece of the championship net high above her head after the Lady Dragons captured the District 4-AAA tournament title Monday night. The net-cutting ceremony capped a hard-fought title game. - Ellie Hatmaker
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Clinton’s Eli Slaven (14) drives to the basket against Gibbs during Friday night’s District 4-AAA tournament opener. Slaven poured in 20 points as the top-seeded Dragons began postseason play. - Ellie Hatmaker
Addi Gamble, the District 4-AAA Player of the Year, was limited to six points Monday night in the district tournament championship game.
But the senior point guard delivered the biggest basket of the night. Her go-ahead shot with 1 minute, 4 seconds remaining in regulation put Clinton ahead for good in a 49-46 victory over crosstown rival Anderson County before a raucous crowd at ACHS.
Josie Moody added a late free throw to seal the win for the Lady Dragons, who rallied to claim the program’s first district tournament title since 1979 and secured their 29th victory of the 2025-26 season.
Clinton (29-2) will chase its 30th win — and continue the most-successful season in program history — when it hosts Austin-East in a Region 2-AAA elimination quarterfinal Friday night at Don W. Lockard Gymnasium. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m.
The Lady Dragons defeated the Lady Roadrunners twice during the regular season.
In Monday’s title game, Clinton — which dropped early-season contests to Anderson County and Gatlinburg-Pittman in November — stormed out to a 17-9 lead after one quarter.
The Lady Mavericks (12-14) answered. Anderson County trimmed the deficit to 23-21 at halftime when Macy Basford buried a 3-pointer at the buzzer. Basford scored nine first-half points, hitting three shots from beyond the arc.
“She’s a great player,” Clinton Coach Alicia Daugherty said. “I’ll have to go back and look, but I don’t think she missed a three. She made some big shots.”
With Gamble largely contained, Jailie Rodd provided the spark Clinton needed.
The junior came off the bench to pour in 17 points — possibly a career high — knocking down at least three 3-pointers to pace the Lady Dragons.
“I’d say she had 17 points,” Daugherty said. “I know she hit three 3s or maybe four, but I know it was at least three. They weren’t going to guard Jailie and we knew that.
“But I’ll be honest, I haven’t looked at a single stat line because it’s not about individual stats,” she said. “It’s about winning the district championship. It’s our first district championship since 1979, and Coach Lisa Walton was on that team. I’m just proud of the Lady Dragons.”
Anderson County seized momentum in the third quarter, taking a 42-37 lead after Basford drilled back-to-back 3-pointers, the first coming at the 5:39 mark to give the Lady Mavericks a 39-37 advantage.
“I was really proud of the way we battled back,” Clinton’s Daugherty said. “We got down five and we fought back.”
Moody finished with 10 points for Clinton, while Caylin Taylor had nine.
Basford led all scorers with 18 points. Bethany Lowe added 13 for Anderson County, which will host Seymour in a first-round Region 2-AAA contest for the second straight year and the fourth time in five seasons.
Lady Mavericks Coach Mitch Cupples praised Clinton’s resilience.
“I think my girls played the best defense that they’ve played against Clinton all year,” Cupples said. “And what about Jailie Rodd?
“Clinton has a great team and you can’t guard all five of them,” he said. “We stopped their scorers and a girl who doesn’t play as much goes for 17. In essence, they have four 1,000-point scorers. (Lanee) Carmichael, Moody and Gamble have all scored 1,000 points, and Taylor will sometime next year.”
