by Rusty Ellis
MURFREESBORO – The Pickett County Lady Bobcats won their sixth Gold Ball in school history Saturday afternoon as they took down Moore County 56-45 in the Class A State Championship.
“It’s like I’m in a fog, I can’t believe it,” said Pickett County Head coach Brent Smith. “You dream about this opportunity, you dream about it your whole life. I’m just so blessed for this opportunity, and I can’t say enough about (the players).”
A rock-fight early, Pickett got a lift from Addy Lowe off the bench, as she drilled her first three of the game with five seconds left in the frame to give the Lady Bobcats an 11-6 advantage heading into the second quarter.
Pickett extended the lead to double-digits in the second, as Ella Kate Keisling’s layup at the 6:46 mark put the Lady Bobcats out in front 16-6. The lead ballooned to 23-11 by the half, as the Lady Bobcat defense held Moore County to just 8% shooting in the first two quarters.
As far as what went right, head coach Brent Smith says his team locked in and communicated like they have all season.
“We went through our walkthrough today, and we understood their tendencies,” Smith said. “We weren’t perfect by any means, but we were close enough, and good defense beats good offense.”
The third quarter saw the Lady Bobcats begin to pull away, as Allie Amonett’s layup with 2:22 to go in the quarter made it a 40-23 ballgame, and by the close of the quarter, Pickett County held a 44-30 lead.
The biggest lead of the game came at the 4:11 mark of the fourth, as Emmy Lowe’s crossover and Addy Lowe’s dish to Callie Reeder for a three gave Pickett a 53-33 lead. From there, the Lady Bobcats cruised their way to a Gold Ball, as they finished off the 56-45 win over Moore County.
Reeder was named the State Tournament MVP after a 12-point, eight-rebound performance. After last season ended in a first-round defeat to Hampton, Reeder says this moment is a testament to the work Pickett put in.
“It all feels like a dream,” Reeder said. “It just doesn’t feel real…it’s all paid off. At the end of the day, it’s definitely paid off for us.”
Coming into this year’s tournament, Smith had experienced nine straight losses in the first round of the tournament.
Now, he gets to call himself a state champion.
“It is about time,” Smith said. “We’ve had awesome fan support for a really long time, you saw it today…the people we bring, we’ve been doing that all year. It’ll (hit me) somewhere, but it’s all worth it.”
