Sparta
The White County Warriorettes faced the Southwind Jaguars in the first round of the Frank’s Christmas Shootout. Led by Gracie Clark’s 18 points and helped by 13 each from Ashlyn Selby and Kylie Norris plus another 11 from Bella Winningham, the Warriorettes had no problem taking care of business on Friday night. White County walked away with a 69-27 win and moved into the tournament’s final four.
Both teams came out fighting. Turnovers, steals, and rebounds had the ball moving up and down the court quickly but not finding its way through either net easily. It was the Lady Jaguars who scored first. It took a full two minutes, but Southwind took a 4-0 lead before White County’s Lakelyn Grasty sank a free through.
With the Warriorettes down 4-1, Gracie Clark took control creating two turnovers and scoring five points – one free throw and two from the floor – to give White County a 6-4 lead with five minutes left in the first quarter. Bella Winningham got involved on defense to take the ball from Southwind and feed Clark for another bucket.
White County’s full court press kept the Lady Jaguars offense off balance for the whole first quarter. The Warriorettes stormed their way to a 23-6 lead at the end of the first quarter thanks in part to Clark’s 12 early points and Ashlyn Selby drowning six from the foul line and adding another from the floor for eight points.
It was all defense for the first half of the second quarter as at the four-minute mark only two points had been added to the scoreboard thanks to a pair of free throws from Clark. But the Warriorette offense got back to their scoring ways quickly in the next four minutes, thanks primarily to a pair of threes by Winningham. At the end of the half, the Jaguars had squeezed six points past White County but trailed the Warriorettes 40-12.
The second half started much like the first – lots of movement up and down the court, turnovers, steals, and rebounds, just not baskets. Over halfway through the third quarter, both teams had managed to add two to their scoreboard totals. But again, just like in the first quarter, the speed of the White County team wore down Southwind. At the end of three, the Warriorettes had a 61-16 lead to create a running clock for the final period.
White County head coach Michael Dodgen emptied the bench and then swapped emptied it again as more than ten Warriorettes got playing time. White County coasted through the final minutes of play to move into the semifinal round of the tournament.
White County will play again Saturday at 8 p.m. where they will face the winner of the Dyersburg vs. Mt. Juliet game.
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