Gary Corsair • Clay County Progress Hayesville's Mallory Peck, No. 35, and Breanna Abrams, No. 4, form a wall to thwart a Cherokee drive to the basket.
By Gary Corsair
Sports Writer
The Lady Jackets gave their all in the championship game of the Smoky Mountain Conference Girls Basketball Tournament Friday, but Cherokee lived up to being ranked No. 2 in 1-A in western North Carolina in dispatching Hayesville, 82-27.
Hayesville, 20-6, never had a chance against Cherokee’s oppressive full-court press, furious fast-breaking and super-duper shooting, but there’s no shame in that; there’s probably not a 1-A team that can beat the Braves, 23-1.
“They are a really good team. Their defensive pressure gave us problems all night,” Hayesville Coach Chad McClure said. “They have a good chance to make a deep playoff run.”
The title tilt was a ballgame for just about a minute. Ava Shook’s free throw :35 into the game made the score Cherokee 2, Hayesville 1, but things go terribly one-sided in a hurry.
Cherokee led 11-3 halfway through the first quarter and 24-7 at the end of the initial period. Things really got ugly when the Lady Braves reeled off 17 unanswered points in the second stanza on the way to a 52-17 halftime lead.
The second half was more of the same.
The outcome could have been worse. The Lady Jackets’ 27 points was their highest output in three games against Cherokee this season, 21 points on Dec. 19 and 16 on Feb. 2.
“I really felt we did some things better than the previous two,” McClure stated.
Jasmine Brooks was certainly more of a factor in game three. Brooks came off the bench to score a team-high 7 points and grab two rebounds off the bench.
Shook had 6 points and three assists, Emma Ashe added 5 points, Mallory Peck collected a team-high five rebounds, Bryleigh Krieger scored 4, Brooke Graves had three rebounds and 2 points, Breanna Abrams scrapped for three boards and two steals and Briley Clampitt tallied three markers.