by Rusty Ellis
MURFREESBORO – The York Institute Dragonettes saw their third straight trip to the Glass House end just short of their ultimate goal, as they fell to Gibson County 38-35 on Friday evening.
Both teams started slow offensively, and it was Gibson County who held a slim 8-6 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Junior Reese Beaty turned up her level of play in the second quarter, as she scored all 11 of the Dragonettes’ points in the frame and hit back-to-back threes to lead her team into the halftime break up 17-13.
There, Gibson County opened the quarter with 12 of the first 14 total points, and took a 25-19 lead on a pair of Sania Reaves free throws with 53 seconds remaining in the frame. Emma Pile knocked down a three for York to end the quarter strong however, as the Dragonettes trailed just 25-22 to start the fourth quarter.
The Lady Pioneers extended to a six-point lead yet again in the fourth, as Georgia Lannom’s layup at the 4:28 mark gave Gibson a 31-25 lead. From there, York cut the lead in half on a trio of Pile free throws, but got no closer than that, as the Dragonettes’ season came to a close in a 38-35 defeat.
Beaty was the lone Dragonette in double-figures, as she finished with a game-high 19 points for head coach Michael Green, who kept it very simple regarding what the difference in the game was.
“Gibson County wanted it more,” Green said. “They had five players out there the whole time, and I think everyone would agree with me, they wanted the championship…they had five players that had a lot of fight in them, we were facing a 2-3 zone and we finished 3-21 from three.”
It’s the third straight season for York where they’ve made it to the Glass House, but they’ve not been able to accomplish the ultimate goal of winning a state championship.
For Beaty, it’s a feeling she hope stays with her and all of her teammates over the next year, and that it serves as a motivator to make it back to Murfreesboro in 2025.
“This season no longer matters,” Beaty said. “This has happened three years in a row, and that feeling is not a good feeling…it’s great to get here, but when that buzzer goes off and you don’t have a higher score than the other team, it hurts. I think we need to look back on how we prepared, and it’s not enough.”
And if you ask Green, it’s something that he hopes pushes his roster to put the work in over the summer to prepare for next season.
“People don’t understand how hard it is to get here,” Green said. “As bad as it is, we’re going to try and enjoy this after it’s over…we’ve got to have some buy-in from everybody. I don’t enjoy coming down here without a gold ball. They better get on-board, because I don’t think (Beaty) wants to spend her senior year watching from the stands.”
