Lady Rebels pull second upset in three days
By Marcus Fitzsimmons | (marcusf@thedailytimes.com)
The Lady Rebels seem to be peaking right on schedule.
Maryville never backed down defensively against No. 8 Bearden Tuesday and ran away in the fourth quarter for a 52-37 victory, a second straight win over a ranked team and neat wrapping up of third place in the District 4-AAA race.
The Lady Bulldogs (18-5) never got one of the state’s best inside-outside games going as sharpshooters Erin Walsh and Olivia Pfeifer were held to a combined three 3s in Jim Campbell Gymnasium. Maryville made it 14 games in 22 outings that the defense has held the opposition under 40 points with alternating looks on the perimeter that disguised the posts and kept Bearden guessing.
“This is also the 14th time we’ve held someone to under 35 percent shooting,” Maryville coach Scott West said. “It’s hard to prepare for, we don’t do the same thing every time with our trap. We may leave you open this time and double up the next time, it kind of confuses people. It happened at Farragut the other night where they had 6-footers shooting outside. I told the girls you’ve just finished knocking off the No. 8 team on their home floor and the No. 9 team in the state in the last three days.”
Bearden jumped out to a 12-5 lead getting two of its three 3s in the first four minutes but when Kayla Tillie went diving for a loose ball and managed to call time on the floor, everything changed for the Lady Rebels. Maryville held Bearden without a field goal for the next 9:41 as Maryville went on a 13-1 run to lead 18-13. It took the last of Bearden’s treys — a bomb off a double screen from Pfiefer — to send the teams to half knotted up,
Leila Bangash carried Maryville (12-10, 8-5 District 4-AAA) early, hitting her first eight foul shots in a night the Lady Rebels ruled the line. But the versatile junior went down 30 seconds into the third quarter with an ankle injury. Bangash went to the locker room and when she returned with a minute to go in the stanza the Lady Rebels still held the lead.
“The biggest change was when Layla went out and freshman Caylan Arnold came in and hit the little 14-foor baseline jumper that gave us a 4-point lead and let Layla tape it up and come back. I knew she’d be back,” West said. “She’s just that tough. 21 points 10 rebounds tonight, if she isn’t the district MVP I don’t know who is. That was her sixth double-double and her fifth 20-point game this season.”
Bangash hit three more free tosses to start the fourth on her way to a 13-of-16 night at the line as the Lady Rebels finished 20-for-28 in free tosses. Bearden called time to set up its man-to-man, full-court press trailing 36-29 with 5:23 remaining, but the plan misfired. Maryville went over the top of the press with Olivia Spears throwing bullets down the floor to Tillie who repeatedly went in for uncontested layups to build the Lady Rebel lead to as much as 16. Tillie finished with 17 for the Lady Rebels.
Walsh led Bearden with 13 and Pfeifer 10 as the Lady Bulldogs went without a 3-pointer the second half.
Bearden 53, Rebels 44
In a battle that might just have determined the top seeds in the District 4-AAA bracket, Bearden took one from the Maryville boys as the teams split the season series with each winning in the other’s gym. The Rebels (19-5, 11-2 District 4-AAA) close out the district schedule with Heritage Friday knowing that Bearden (21-2, 11-1) and West — the only other 4-AAA team to get a win against Maryville — must still play a second time.
The Bulldogs made Adarius Wilson’s first quarter 3-pointer stand up as the difference for three quarters leading 5-2, 15-12 and 29-26 as the teams swapped the lead and momentum but kept ending up where they started the stanza. Bearden pulled away in the fourth despite a rain of Clark McCall 3-pointers — the senior hit all three of his treys in the fourth on his way to a game-high 23. Bearden got 14 from Wilson and 17 big post Brady Smith.
MARYVILLE 52, NO. 9 BEARDEN 37
B 12 6 10 9 — 37
M 11 7 13 21 — 52
BEARDEN (18-5) — Erin Walsh 13, Olivia Pfeifer 10, Chanler Geer 4, Kolbie Goddard 5, Tyler Carter 4, Kaci Mitchell 1.
MARYVILLE (12-10, 8-5) — Leila Bangash 21, Olivia Spears 5, Kayla Tillie 17, Kat Pepperman 4, Paxton Robinette 3, Caylan Arnold 2.
3-POINTERS — B 3 (Pfeifer 2, Walsh); M 2 (Pepperman, Spears).
BEARDEN 53, MARYVILLE 44
B 5 10 14 24 — 53
M 2 10 14 18 — 44
BEARDEN (22-2, 11-1) — Sam Greene 7, Isaiah Campbell 8, Adarius Wilson 14, Jack Graham 5, Brady Smith 17, Austin Duncan 2.
MARYVILLE (19-5, 11-2) — Clark McCall 23, Nick Myers 2, Grant Wilson 1, Isaac Edmiston 5, John Garrett 5, TJ Kimble 6, Brian Landers 2.
3-POINTERS — B 3 (Wilson 2, Graham); M 5 (McCall 3, Edmiston, Garrett).
