THARPTOWN - Phil Campbell’s ninth-grade girls capped off a 15-1 season with a county championship on Saturday afternoon, but the secret to their success is no secret at all.
“When you have a group that’s not satisfied with where they are, a group that wants to keep working and keep getting better, that’s when you can really win a lot of games,” said head coach Tracy Pace, whose team built a huge first-half lead over Tharptown in Saturday’s final and then cruised to a 35-27 win. “I really believe that if you’re not moving forward, you’re going backward.”
It was full speed ahead on Saturday for the Lady Bobcats, who held Tharptown without a field goal for the game’s first ten-plus minutes and led 18-2 late in the first half. McKensi Scott’s straight-on three at the buzzer sent Phil Campbell into the locker room on top 23-6.
“We relied on our press early, but we got in foul trouble and we backed out of it,” Pace said. “We went to that two-three [zone], and they had a tough time scoring. Our two guards out front, Caymen Quinn and McKensi Scott, are really aggressive, and they did a good job taking away the three-point shot.
"[Tharptown] really had no choice other than to go inside with it, and I’ve got some bigs in Faith Cook and Katie Thomas and Olivia Taylor who are big and aggressive and really get after it. They’re tough to score against inside.”
Quinn led the way on the offensive end, going 5-for-7 from the foul line and scoring a team-high 11 points. Taylor, Cook and Scott each added seven points, and Thomas chipped in with three. Taylor grabbed a game-high nine rebounds, helping the Lady Bobcats hold a 27-19 edge on the boards.
Quinn had five rebounds, followed by Scott with four, Thomas and MaKayla Baker with three apiece, and Gracie Raper with two.
Gracie Montgomery hit three second-half threes for Tharptown and finished with 13 points. She made two threes in the game’s final two minutes, but the Lady Wildcats would get no closer than eight points.
Macy Petree made a pair of threes in the second half and scored six points. Jaden Gaston had Tharptown’s only two field goals in the first half and finished with four points and five rebounds. Taylor Cameron added two points and seven boards, and Bethany Gasque also scored two.
Phil Campbell’s only loss of the season came to Cold Springs at a Thanksgiving tournament, and the Lady Bobcats rolled past Red Bay and Tharptown last week to take home the county title they had expected to win all along.
“These girls have worked hard and improved this year,” said Pace, who has now led Phil Campbell to two ninth-grade girls championships in her five seasons as head coach. “Even my girls who didn’t play a whole lot, they’ve gotten a lot better from the time they were seventh-graders to now.”
In previous ninth-grade girls action at the county tournament:
Phil Campbell 40 Red Bay 20
The Lady Bobcats led by 20 at the half and cruised to a win in last Thursday’s semifinal.
McKensi Scott led Phil Campbell with 11 points. Caymen Quinn and Faith Cook each added eight, and Katie Thomas scored seven. Brittany Roberson finished with four, and MaKayla Baker had two.
Thomas hit a three-pointer in the first quarter, helping the Lady Bobcats jump out to an early 11-3 lead. Cook and Quinn scored six points apiece in the second quarter as Phil Campbell extended the lead to 29-9 at the half.
Emma McCollister made two threes and finished with six points to lead Red Bay.
In ninth-grade boys action at the county tournament:
Phil Campbell 41 Tharptown 23
Mason Swinney and Blaine Goodson each scored 12 points in Saturday’s final, helping the Bobcats overcome a big game from Tharptown’s Colton Simmons to claim the county title.
Simmons scored all 11 first-half points for the Wildcats, who trailed by just six going into the break. Tharptown was still within six at 19-13 following a driving layup by Hayden Moss early in the third quarter, but Phil Campbell responded with a 12-2 run to take control.
Goodson sparked the run with two free throws and a layup, and then a basket by big man Seth Hutcheson made it 25-13 midway through the third. Simmons hit two free throws to briefly halt the run, but Boone Swinney scored back-to-back buckets to push the lead to 14. Goodson capped the run with another basket to make it 31-15 heading to the fourth.
Hutcheson finished with eight points and five rebounds, helping the Bobcats hold a 26-19 edge on the glass. Boone Swinney added five points and four boards, and John Randle Herring had six rebounds to go along with his two points. Dylan Jeane added two points and four boards.
Simmons finished with a game-high 19 points for the Wildcats and also pulled down six rebounds. Moss added four points, and Sergio Alfaro, Hunter Folsom and Andy Lopez each had three rebounds.
Each team shot 7-for-14 from the foul line.
Tharptown 48 East Franklin 25
Colton Simmons scored 15 points and Hayden Moss added 13 for the Wildcats, who cruised past East Franklin in last Saturday’s semifinal.
Moss went 5-for-7 from the foul line and also made a pair of three-pointers. Hunter Folsom hit two threes and finished with 10 points. Jaden Laster and Andy Lopez scored four apiece, and Travis Staten had two.
