AAU team wins title at tourney
After dropping a nail-biter to the Music City Magic, the Lady Pioneers 14-and-under AAU basketball team got its revenge when it counted this weekend.
The Lady Pioneers defeated the Magic 31-23 Saturday at the Tullahoma Civic Center to capture the championship in their first tournament of the year.
The title game was the fourth contest of the day for the Lady Pioneers, a team made up of eighth-graders and freshmen from around the county and coached by Warren County Middle School eighth-grade girls coach Chris Parker.
Earlier in the day, the Magic had taken advantage of inaccuracy at the charity stripe to notch a victory over Warren County, winning 26-25 as the Lady Pioneers went just 6-of-16 from the free-throw line.
But after righting their ship with a whopping 42-16 win over Tullahoma’s seventh-grade squad, the Lady Pioneers took advantage of their chance for revenge against the Magic.
The championship game was close early, with the Magic carrying a 16-15 lead at halftime.
But seven second-half points each from Brittany Brewer and Alysa Lankford, and an 11-of-19 free-throw performance from the team, helped Warren County pull ahead, and strong defense held the Magic to just seven second-half points to seal the win for Warren County.
Lankford finished with 12 points in the championship, while Brewer had 10. Leah Cunningham scored five, Heather Frazier had three and Amanda Locke had one point.
Eleven of the Lady Pioneers’ 13 players got into the scoring column in Saturday’s win over Tullahoma 7, with Brewer leading the way with nine points and Sarah Tanner notching six.
Cunningham, Locke, Frazier and Hannah Higgins had four each, with Alex Mullican adding three and four Lady Pioneers — McKenna Rhea, Kara Youngblood, Samantha Heitger and Lankford — scoring two each.
Heitger’s seven points led the team in its earlier loss to the Magic, while Cunningham and Locke scored five each, Brewer had four and Rhea and Lankford scored two apiece.
Heitger and Cunningham had 11 and 10 points, respectively, to help Warren County open Saturday’s play with a big 52-25 win over Tullahoma 8th. Rhea added eight points, Lauren Patterson scored five, Brewer, Lankford and Higgins had four each, and the trio of Mullican, Locke and Frazier had two apiece in that win, which saw the Lady Pioneers take a 32-16 lead into halftime.
The tournament began Friday night at Motlow, with the Lady Pioneers rolling to a 38-19 win over Tullahoma 7th.
Once again a balanced scoring attack served the Lady Pioneers well, with Higgins leading the team with seven points, including five in the first half to help her squad to a 17-7 lead.
Heitger had six, Locke scored five, and Lankford and Patterson each netted four. Cunningham, Tanner, Rhea, Frazier and Youngblood had two apiece, with Mullican and Keaton rounding out the winning effort with one each.