By Michael Lindsay
Girls
Tuesday’s non-district battle of highly-touted girls basketball teams went to the home team as the York Institute Dragonettes held off a strong fourth-quarter rally by Cookeville to defeat the Lady Cavaliers, 52-48.
“It was a gutsy performance by our girls,” said York head coach Michael Green. “We got up about 16 and missed too many two-footers and had a hard time guarding them in the second half. Cookeville is a great team; it didn’t matter what the lead was, we had to play all four quarters.”
Tuesday was a game of runs as York Institute led by as many as 16 points in the first half before Cookeville held a 3-point lead in the fourth quarter.
Reese Beaty led the Dragonettes with 21 points along with 16 by Raylee Werner. Cookeville was led by 17 points from Cara Lee Gilbert and 12 from Isabel Garcia.
After a back-and-forth start, York Institute took control late in the first period as a Werner basket gave the Dragonettes a 13-7 lead at the end of the frame.
York pushed their lead to double digits early in the second quarter as a Beaty and-one put the Dragonettes up 18-7 with 6:52 remaining in the second period.
An Emma Pile basket off a Werner assist gave York a 23-9 lead with 4:30 left until halftime. Cookeville battled back as a late three-pointer from Allie Gillies and free throws by Garcia made the score 25-18 in favor of York at halftime.
Cookeville caught York early in the fourth quarter as a Paige Hamilton basket followed by a Gilbert three-pointer gave the Lady Cavaliers a 40-39 lead with 5:50 remaining.
The teams traded baskets as Gilbert drained another three-pointer followed by an and-one finish to give Cookeville a 46-43 lead with 4:20 left.
“I was telling them to calm down,” Green said. “We don’t have to rush anything, but at the same time we have to have some urgency.”
York caught back up to Cookeville with 1:52 remaining as Emma Cooper finished a shot at the rim to tie the game at 48. The Dragonettes retook their lead on their next possession as a Beaty jumper found the bottom of the net to put her team ahead 50-48 with 55 seconds remaining.
“We’ve still got to have more out of everybody,” Green said. “Defensively, the way Cookeville plays, you have to get in there and finish. Most of these players are sophomores, but that’s no excuse. You’ve got to fight and overcome it.”
Cookeville ran the clock down and had a look from three-point range with less than 5 seconds remaining, but the shot didn’t fall as Beaty put the game away from the free-throw line with 3.2 seconds left to make the final score 52-48 in favor of the Dragonettes.
York improves to 7-2 overall with the win while Cookeville falls to 6-2.
“If you had told me we’d be 7-2 at this point, I would have called you crazy,” said Green. “The competition we’ve played and the youth we have, I can’t say enough about the fight we have. We’re learning and still have a lot to do, but I’m proud of where we’re at.”
York will be in action next week in the Frank’s Shootout at White County Monday through Wednesday while Cookeville travels to Oakland on Friday.
York Institute (52): Reese Beaty 21, Raylee Werner 16, Emma Cooper 8, Emma Pile 5, Cali Franklin 3
Cookeville (48): Cara Lee Gilbert 17, Isabel Garcia 12, Allie Gillies 8, Charlie Roby 7, Paige Hamilton 4
Boys
The Cookeville Cavaliers traveled to Jamestown Tuesday and left with a 73-45 victory over York Institute.
“We really challenged the boys the last few days in practice about our defensive intensity,” said Cookeville head coach Josh Heard. “I thought we showcased that early by getting some turnovers and getting out and running; that’s our brand of basketball and it makes our offense more efficient.”
Cavalier senior guard Joshua Heard led a balanced effort by Cookeville with 22 points along with 13 by Colin Ayers and 9 by Bennett Reeves.
“We’ve been waiting on this for a while,” said coach Heard. “We have seven guys that can score the basketball and can start on any given high school team. Tonight, we were patient with our offense and moved the ball. It was a good example of what we can be.”
Heath Wattenbarger and Bryson Bilbrey led York Institute with 13 points each.
Cookeville took control in the first quarter as an Ayers transition layup with 2:59 remaining in the opening frame gave Cookeville a 17-7 lead.
“We talked about this environment and how it’s so hard to play here,” said coach Heard. “We used this as an example of a ‘district tournament’ type game because of the crowd and environment. For us to take them (the crowd) out in the first two or three minutes of the game was big.”
The Cavaliers held a 24-11 advantage after one and pushed their lead out to 20 points by halftime, 40-20. Joshua Heard had 17 first-half points including three three-pointers.
Cookeville kept control in the second half as they led 55-32 after three quarters before winning by a 73-45 final score.
Cookeville improves to 6-1 overall while York Institute falls to 3-4.
The Cavaliers are set to travel to Oakland Friday while York Institute will compete next in the Frank’s Shootout at White County High School next week.
Cookeville (73): Joshua Heard 22, Colin Ayers 13, Bennett Reeves 9, Jalen Heard 7, Jack Oakley 6, Jospeh Owens 4, Jaren Davis 4, Bryce Herren 4, Jalen Denk 4
York Institute (45): Heath Wattenbarger 13, Bryson Bilbrey 13, Will Beaty 10, Jackson Conatser 6, JD Anderson 3
