The Daily Times

At 28-27 entering the fourth, it sounded more like an epic Alcoa and Maryville football game in the making rather than a hardcourt girls’ game, but the intensity and defense was certainly football-worthy as the Lady Rebels battled out a 37-34 victory at Alcoa Saturday night.

Laila Bangash hit four free throws in the last 20 seconds for the Lady Rebels. The first tied it, and the second gave the lead to Maryville with 20 seconds remaining. The third and fourth nailed down the back-and-forth affair with :01.3 left on the clock.

“You play a really good team like Alcoa on their home court the day after we play William Blount and get a win, we’ll take it,” Maryville coach Scott West told The Daily Times after directing his team through an unusual but pivotal final 90 seconds.

Katie Stubblefield’s athletic move and basket across the lane gave Alcoa a 34-33 lead with the seventh lead change of a game that also went through four ties. Maryville moved it back into front court before calling timeout but lost the ball on an errant pass when play resumed, giving the Lady Tornadoes (10-7) possession and the lead with 1:10 to play.

Maryville (9-9) wasn’t even in position to send Alcoa to the line to try and make the Lady T’s win it from what was proving an Alcoa weak spot Saturday night. The Lady Rebels had been whistled just once in the second half and had a long way to go to get the count up to seven and force a one-and-one.

“I looked up, and we’ve got one team foul with 1:48 to play. I told the team we were going to have to speed it up,” West said as his team managed to draw five fouls over 36 seconds. “I think it took us 15 seconds to get the first one called, but they came pretty quick after that. When we got the sixth, I told the team to trap instead, and Alcoa threw a pass out of bounds and gave us a chance.”

Maryville gave the ball right back on a turnover, but Bangash came up with a loose ball steal and made her free throw line visit stand up.

“I’ve never seen it before,” Johnson said of the five inbounds on the same possession, as Maryville fouled Alcoa as quickly as it could. “It was just an odd situation in an odd game.

“I don’t feel like we ever got anything going on offense or defense very consistently, I saw a lot of things we’ll be working on in practice next week. They outrebounded us 31-16, and our free-throw shooting was horrendous the few times we got to shoot them.”

Alcoa went 2-for-6 at the line while Maryville was 7-for-10 after Bangash hit the last four to reach a team-best 12 points. Olivia Spears added 6 on two huge 3-pointers while Kathryn Pepperman pumped in 9 and Kayla Tillie 6. Alcoa was paced by Stubblefield’s 15 with Tiffanie Moore chipping in 11.

Rebels 59, Alcoa 34

It was supposed to be a showcase of the wide receivers — Maryville’s T.J. Kimble and Alcoa’s Kenny Dean — but it ended up being the story of the backup quarterback. John Garrett led a Maryville scoring attack with 17 as the Rebels lit up the Tornadoes (9-9) for a double-digit first quarter lead they never relinquished. Dean finished with a game-high 21, but after a second quarter 3-pointer and an end-to-end layup in transition that cut the MHS lead to 22-17, the points just didn’t come fast enough for Alcoa.

The Rebels (16-3) closed out the half on a 9-0 run to hit the locker room with a 31-17 edge. Kimble finished with 8 to match fellow senior Bryan Landers while Clark McCall added a dozen.

Maryville pushed the lead as high as 29 in the second half, breaking away as Garrett swished a pair at the foul line then converted the old-fashion 3-point play on a layup and foul and finished his mini-run off with the second of his two treys.

Alcoa hosts Kingston Tuesday and travels to Loudon Thursday before coming back to host Fulton Friday. Maryville gets Catholic and Farragut in West Knoxville next week and hosts a makeup date with West in between.

Maryville 37, Alcoa 34

M 8 6 13 10 — 37

A 7 11 10 6 — 34

MARYVILLE LADY REBELS (9-9)

Kayla Tille 6, Leila Bangash 12, Kathryn Pepperman 9, Paxton Robinette 2, Olivia Spears 6, Nadia Steele 2.

ALCOA LADY Ts (10-7)

Katie Stubblefield 15, Tiffanie Moore 11, Kayla Newman 4, Hannah Tate 4.

3-POINTERS

Maryville 2 (Spears 2); Alcoa 2 (Moore, Newman).

Maryville 59, Alcoa 34

MARYVILLE REBELS (16-3)

Adrian Page 3, Clark McCall 12, Nick Myers 2, Grant Wilson 4, Isaac Edmiston 4, John Garrett 17, TJ Kimble 8, Bryan Landers 8, Bryce Miller 1.

ALCOA TORNADOES (9-9)

Peyton Wall 4, Niko White 4, Kenny Dean 21, Kyle Mitchell 1, Malik Love 2, Brandon teeter 2.

3-POINTERS

Maryville 4 (Garrett 2, McCall, Paige), Alcoa 2 (Dean 2).