Bartlett goes line dancing
Team playing in first state championship game since 1928
MURFREESBORO – Bartlett girls basketball coach Wes Shappley took his team line dancing Wednesday night as a way to get out of their hotel while waiting to play in a Class 4A semifinal on Friday.
The Lady Panthers may get a chance to do more dancing Saturday, but this time with a gold ball trophy.
Bartlett beat Green Hill 56-35 in the TSSAA Bluecross Girls Basketball State Championships at Middle Tennessee State’s Murphy Center to advance to the program’s first title game since 1928.
Bartlett (34-7) plays Bradley Central (34-1) at 1:30 p.m. Saturday in the Class 4A championship. Bradley Central beat Cookeville 59-43 in its semifinal.
“They turned the Wildhorse Saloon (in Nashville) up a notch,” Shappley said. “They had a great time.”
Shappley said he was seeking some entertainment after Bartlett played its quarterfinal on Tuesday, then had to wait until Friday to play again.
Topgolf was not in the program’s budget and the mall closed early.
“They were not down for it,” Shappley said. “We walked in and they hear this country music and was like, ‘I hate country music.’ They see cowboy boots and cowboy hats. They were like, ‘What are we doing here?’
“Second song we were at the table, and they took off dancing. I was like, ‘Oh yeah, it’s on.’”
Shappley, who is in his third season, led the Lady Panthers to the program’s fifth state tournament this season.
Bartlett reached the quarterfinals in 2008 and 2015. Wins over Sevier County and Green Hill are the Lady Panthers’ first state tournament wins since 1928.
“As a senior, all of us have been eager and hungry every single day just trying to win a state championship,” Collier said. “That’s been our goal. We’ve been working hard every single day, to make
that come true.”
That hunger was personified a year ago when Bartlett lost 59-55 to Rossview in a 2022 sectional, one game from the state tournament.
Neveah Scott led all scorers with 22 points on 7-of-12 shooting. She hit four 3-pointers. Teammate Mallory Collier, a North Carolina State signee and Class 4A Miss Basketball finalist added 12 points and nine rebounds. And Faye Williams had 10 points and seven rebounds.
Shappley predicted success
Three years ago Shappley pulled his first-year team together and predicted its future. It consisted of making it to the Murphy Center to play in the state championships. Oh, and get to Saturday’s championships.
There were moments since then that Shappley admittedly doubted himself for those comments.
“I told them, ‘People standing in the circle are going to play in the state tournament,”
he said. “And people standing in the circle are going to play for a state championship. I put one more guarantee on it. I guess we can talk about that (Saturday) afternoon hopefully.
“A lot of times since then I thought, ‘Why did I say that?’ We’ve had some long days. This year, watching them we checked a ton of boxes. Watching them this year, we’ve got a shot.”
Reach Tom Kreager at tkreager @gannett.com and on Twitter @Kreager.