Gordon Lee girls complete perfect season
The Gordon Lee Lady Trojans arrived at Saddle Ridge Middle School late Saturday morning looking to complete a historic undefeated season, while the Ringgold Lady Tigers were bound and determined not to see their threeyear championship reign end without a fight.
Gordon Lee would ultimately achieve its goal, but not before having to hang on to defeat a very gritty Ringgold squad, 42-39, in the NGAC tournament final.
The Lady Trojans led by 11 points late, but had to stave off one final rally by the Lady Tigers, who saw a final gametying 3-point attempt fall short at the buzzer.
Early on, the two teams swapped leads several times before Gordon Lee gained some breathing room with a 10-0 run that took up the final
90 seconds of the first quarter and the first two minutes of the second quarter.
Winning the battle on the boards, Gordon Lee extended its lead to nine on two different occasions. The final time came after Camdyn Carter’s
nice move in the lane just before the clock hit zero as the Lady Trojans took a 27-18 lead into halftime.
Kyleigh Custer boosted Gordon Lee’s lead to 11 after a steal and a tough lay-up in traffic with 2:47 left in the
third quarter, while a nice head fake led to a lay-up by Kynleigh Custer with 5:52 left in the game that gave the Lady Trojans their biggest lead of the day at 37-24.
Ringgold answered with five quick points, but Gordon Lee would hit 3 of 4 free throws in a 23-second span to go up 40-29 with 2:30 remaining and it looked as though the Navy-and-white would cruise to the title.
The Lady Tigers, however, had other ideas.
Jersey Rae Loy got the rally going with a 3-pointer at the 2:29 mark and, after giving up a lay-up at the other end of the court, Loy connected on a bucket with 1:02 to play that chopped the lead down to eight.
A steal by Gracelee Thorton led to a Keeley Mountjoy basket 12 seconds later. Then, after a Gordon Lee miss, Loy went hard to the basket and was rewarded with a 3-point play that made it a one-possession game with 30 seconds left.
The Lady Tigers let 20 seconds elapse before finally putting Gordon Lee on the foul line, but caught a break when the Lady Trojans missed the front end of a one-on-one with 10 seconds to go. A scramble for the loose ball ensued with Gordon Lee knocking it out of bounds with just 3.3 seconds left on the clock.
Ringgold got one final look at a game-tying bucket, but the shot would fall short and time expired before the Lady Tigers could put up another one.
Carter, the tournament’s Most Valuable Player had 17 points for Gordon Lee, who won its first NGAC tournament title since 2013. Kynleigh Custer had a solid game with 11 points, while Kyleigh Custer finished with five. Riley Mull scored four points and played solid defense all game long, while three points by Laney Wilson and two from Molly Corvin rounded out the scoring.
Loy led the Lady Tigers with 16 points, while Mya Tate added seven and Mountjoy finished with six. Albany Harris and Grace Evans each scored four, while Jillian Eaker added two.