By Michael Lindsay
Pickett County and Stone Memorial split a pair of non-district matchups Tuesday evening in Crossville as the Lady Bobcats won 74-63 followed by an 82-57 victory by the Panther boys.
Girls
The Pickett County Lady Bobcats hit 13 three-pointers Tuesday as they picked up a 74-63 road victory at Stone Memorial.
“I feel confident with where we’re at,” said Pickett County head coach Brent Smith. “I didn’t think we played super, though; we gave up too many offensive rebounds.”
Point guard Zoey Nicholas led the Lady Bobcats with 20 points followed by 14 points each from Emmy Lowe and Kylie Wood. Stone Memorial was led by 31 points from Ashley Whittenburg.
Pickett County opened the contest with 6 three-pointers in the first quarter to take a 26-16 lead over the Lady Panthers.
An Emma Tompkins layup late in the second quarter gave the Lady Bobcats a 13-point lead (40-27) before taking a 42-30 lead into the locker room at halftime.
Stone Memorial cut their deficit to 4 points (42-38) with 6:26 remaining in the third quarter before an Emmy Lowe trey pushed their lead back to 7 points at 45-38.
A Zoey Nicholas three-pointer later in the quarter extended Pickett County’s lead back to double-digits at 53-43.
Pickett County held at least a three-possession lead throughout the fourth quarter as they went on to win by a 74-63 final score.
The Lady Bobcats improve to 4-1 overall and are scheduled to face Eagleville next Thursday. Stone Memorial falls to 2-6 and hosts Maryville this Thursday in a girls-only contest.
Boys
The Stone Memorial Panthers won their sixth consecutive game Tuesday evening as they defeated Pickett County, 82-57.
“I thought we played well,” said Stone Memorial head coach Neil Capps. “We knew what we were getting into with them coming to town. Pickett County is a tremendous program.”
Cade Capps led all scorers with 29 points along with 19 by Jack Cordell. Jacob Amonett led Pickett County with 22 points.
Stone Memorial opened the game on an 8-0 run in the opening 1 minute and 10 seconds and pushed out to a double-digit lead (23-11) via a Capps three-pointer with 42 seconds left in the first quarter.
The Panthers led 23-13 entering the second quarter and held a 40-23 advantage at halftime. Cordell posted 17 first-half points to lead Stone Memorial.
“Jack is a gamer,” said coach Capps. “He’s a tremendous young man and coachable. Pickett really did a lot of things to keep Cade from getting comfortable and Jack stepped up and had 17 first-half points for us.”
Both offenses stayed hot in the second half as Stone Memorial le 57-43 entering the fourth quarter before holding on to win by an 82-57 final score. Capps posted 22 of his 29 points in the second half.
“We started getting out in transition and getting some easier looks,” said coach Capps. “I’m really tickled with that effort to get a nice win against a quality opponent.”
The Panthers improve to 8-1 overall and face Loretto on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. at Upperman High School while Pickett County falls to 5-1 and faces Eagleville next Thursday.
