By Noah McKay
In her 30th season, Dana McWilliams has learned to expect nearly anything, but for many others the 2023-24 Upperman Lady Bees making the state tournament was anything but expected.
The Lady Bees have seen two Miss Basketball award winners and six college basketball players depart via graduation in the past three years. Anyone with an idea on the basketball landscape in Baxter reasonably assumed this season would be a rebuilding year, yet the Lady Bees have 28 wins and are headed to Murfreesboro for the seventh time in nine seasons.
“I’m not sure if anyone would have believed you if you said 28 wins at this point and also a trip to the state tournament” said McWilliams. “We would’ve said ‘okay we’ll take it.’ I did feel good about how hard the kids worked. It was surprising in some ways, but these kids are tough. We always want to be our best late in the season.”
In addition to the graduates, another blow struck in the summer when expected-starter Maggie Butler, twin sister to sophomore Gracie Butler, suffered a season-ending torn ACL.
Despite the offseason adversity, the Lady Bees raced out to an 11-0 start. They relied on their now patented 2-3 zone defense and timely threes by sophomore Taylor Dolente and freshman Sadie South to defeat teams like state tournament qualifiers Providence Christian Academy and Clay County.
“Here they expect to win. I think that’s an advantage for us,” said Dana McWilliams. “That doesn’t mean we think we’re better than teams. We just feel like we put in the work and that we’re going to give our best effort and be prepared. Getting off to a good start helped them a lot with their confidence. We thought we played good competition. We were just fortunate to get some wins.”
Adversity then hit UHS again, two straight losses by a combined seven points at Creek Wood and against Cocke County in the first round of the Lady Bees annual trip for a tournament in Greeneville.
“I thought Creek Wood was a pretty good team. It came down to the very end and some things didn’t go our way,” said McWilliams. “When we go to Greeneville, we expect nothing but great competition. Cocke County is playing in the state tournament. We didn’t feel like we played our best there, but we know when we go to the tournament you’ve got to be at your best to win. We didn’t panic.”
The Lady Bees answered by rattling off eight straight wins before falling by 26 to eventual-district champion Sparta.
In their second meeting with the Warriorettes they trimmed the gap to five points. They continued to grind out narrow wins against District 7/AAA opponents ranging from Livingston Academy to a 29-28 win at DeKalb County.
Then, the Lady Bees appeared to have potentially run out of steam, dropping both of their games in the district tournament to Livingston and Stone Memorial, shooting 10-54 from three-point range in the tournament.
They once again showed resiliency, traveling to Tullahoma and defeating the District 8/AAA champion Lady Wildcats before blowing out Lawrence County to advance to substate. The play of Gracie Butler, Dolente, Bella Mullins and several others propelled them back into the sectional round.
Revenge came in the region championship game as they used a 21-4 start to defeat Sparta 52-45.
Back in the familiar confines of the Hive, Upperman rolled past Signal Mountain and back to the Glass House.
“Obviously you don’t want to lose two games in the district tournament,” said McWilliams. “That was pivotal. We had to look and see ‘what are we doing wrong?’ We had a great few days of practice and then the kids had a great week last week.”
While the trip may have been unexpected six months ago, the goal in Baxter never changes. They hope to bring a fourth gold ball home to the trophy case outside the gymnasium.
“We’re going to approach this like we do every time in the state tournament,” said McWilliams. “We’re there for business. It feels exactly like it does every time. This team is locked in and I’m excited for them and I think they’re excited about playing. This team I think a lot of people thought it would be a rebuilding year, and in some ways it was, but they’ve stepped up at the right time. They’ve won 28 games… and we’ve played a lot of teams that have been very successful this year.”
The Lady Bees will take on Greeneville in a quarterfinal matchup of the Class 3A state tournament. The game will be audio streamed on the UCR Facebook page and YouTube channel with pregame coverage beginning at 7 p.m.