By Michael Lindsay

Girls

The Smith County Lady Owls (18-10, 4-2) closed out the regular season with a road win Thursday in Woodbury as they defeated District 6-2A foe Cannon County, 44-39.

The Lady Owls secure the #2 seed in the upcoming District 6-2A tournament, where they’ll face the #3 seed Lionettes again next Thursday in the tournament semifinals.

“We play them again in a week in a lot more important game than this one,” said Ferrell. “I think they (Cannon County) were pretty vanilla tonight and so were we. You obviously want to win, but we didn’t want to show a whole lot and I think they were kind of in the same boat.”

Sophomore forward Kaylee Dixon led the Lady Owls with 20 points along with 11 by Emry Jones and 10 by Dacey Claywell. Abi Alexander led Cannon County with 16 points.

“Kaylee Dixon played really good,” said Ferrell. “Emry had a lot of her points early to get us rolling. Both of them played well, and Dacey made a couple of big plays at different times throughout the game.”

Smith County jumped out to a 7-0 lead before Cannon County rallied back to lead 13-12 to end the first quarter. The teams traded baskets throughout the second quarter with Cannon County maintaining a 25-24 lead at halftime.

The Lady Owls took control in the third period as they opened the frame on an 11-2 run to take a 35-27 lead via a Dixon basket with 2:17 remaining in the third quarter. Smith County took that 8-point lead into the fourth quarter, where the Lionettes pulled back within a possession at 37-34 with 1:47 left in regulation. A Dixon basket and pair of free throws over the next 45 seconds put the Lady Owls back ahead by a 41-34 margin.

Smith County led by as many as 8 point in the final minute before a Cannon County three-pointer at the buzzer made the final score 44-39 in favor of the Lady Owls.

“I’ve not been too happy with our either game we played with them,” said Ferrell. “We were up 11 on them with about 2 minutes to go at home and they made some threes late to get it back. Here, we’re up 10 and we give up 5 points in the last few seconds. We’ve got to do a better job closing out and not letting them kind of play their way back in late.”

Next week’s District 6-2A tournament will be held at Monterey High School. The York Institute Dragonettes are the #1 overall seed and face #4 Monterey on Thursday at 6 p.m. while #2 Smith County and #3 Cannon County will face off afterwards.

“This next week will be a lot of prep,” said Ferrell. “We know Canon, York and Monterey very well. The biggest thing is getting healthy and getting locked in on the task at hand.”

Boys

In boys action, Cannon County (20-6, 5-1) avenged an earlier loss to the Owls as they defeated Smith County (17-11, 5-1), 59-53.

Tyler Jones and Cooper Williams led the Owls with 14 points each while Miles Alexander led Cannon County with 21 points followed by Lukas Phillips with 19. Alexander also scored his 1,000th career point in the win.

The Owls jumped out to a 7-0 lead to open the contest before Cannon County battled back to tie it at 12-12 to end the first. Smith County retook the lead in the second period and held a 30-24 halftime advantage.

Cannon County whittled away at Smith County’s lead in the third quarter as a Lions buzzer beater cut their deficit to 42-38 entering the fourth quarter. The Lions caught Smith County with 6:44 remaining as they tied the contest at 42 points each. The teams traded leads over the ensuing 4:40, with a Smith County basket tying the contest at 51-51 with 2 minutes remaining.

The Lions used back-to-back baskets, including a dunk from Eli Garrett, to take a 55-51 lead with 55.7 seconds remaining. Smith County pulled back within one possession (55-53) with 39 seconds left, but got no closer as Cannon County closed out to win by a 59-53 final score.

Friday’s win by Cannon County ties the Lions and Owls atop the District 6-2A standings with each at 5-1 overall. The Lions won the tiebreaker and will be the #1 overall seed in next week’s District 6-2A tournament at Monterey High School. Cannon County will face #4 Monterey on Friday at 6 p.m. while #2 Smith County will face #3 York Institute afterwards.