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Lady Mustangs win school’s first state basketball title
Also see Champions return home to heroes’ welcome
By Carey Phillips
The journey is complete. The dream is fulfilled.
Smoky Mountain’s quest to become women’s state 2-A basketball champions turned into reality at 1:30 p.m. Saturday when the final second ticked off the clock in Chapel Hill’s Dean Smith Center with the scoreboard reading Smoky Mountain 85 Graham 62.
The Lady Mustangs are the first team from Jackson County to win a state basketball title.
All-American point guard Cetera DeGraffenreid completed her brilliant career with 42 points, including 36 in the second half. The game’s most valuable player had 22 in the fourth quarter when the Lady Mustangs (30-2) outscored Graham (31-2) by a 30-11 margin.
The Smoky Mountain women’s basketball team won the state 2-A championship by defeating Graham 85-62 Saturday at the Dean Smith Center in Chapel Hill. Team members include, from left, (front) Cetera DeGraffenreid, (first row) Ashley Robinson, Paige Brooks, Laury Brown, Brandi Anders, Tasha Junaluska, (second row) assistant coach Eric Toedtman, Amy Haggard, Kayla Cooper, Jordan Mason, Brittany Gilbert, Jenna Carpenter, Cayla Cucumber, (third row) assistant coach Shaketia Barnes, Kelly Childress, Kelli Woodard, manager Chris Shuler, manager Al DeGraffenreid, assistant coach Ollin Dunford, Coach Cindi Simmons and manager Jackson Simmons. For more photos from the championship, please see page 3C. – Photo by Mark Haskett
DeGraffenreid set a record for points in a 2-A championship game, breaking the mark of 40 by Ledford’s Leslie Henkle in 2002. Only Union’s April Cromartie, who had 48 in the 1998 1-A finals, scored more in any classification.
DeGraffenreid made 12 field goals, including two three-pointers, and was 16 of 19 from the line. The 16 foul shots were the most ever in the finals for any classification. Cherokee’s Peaches Squirrell made 14 in the 1996 1-A finals.
DeGraffenreid handed out seven assists and came up with four steals.
Her heroics came on the University of North Carolina campus she will call home the next four years. UNC Coach Sylvia Hatchell and her staff were on hand to watch their prize recruit.
Fellow senior Amy Haggard was chosen SM’s outstanding player after scoring 18 points and pulling down seven rebounds. She made eight of 10 shots from the floor, including two three-pointers.
Another senior, Kelli Woodard, just missed a double-double with 10 points and nine rebounds. She hit four field goals and two free throws.
Ashley Robinson disrupted the Lady Devils’ inside game by blocking five shots.
The 55 points by the Lady Mustangs in the second half were the second most by a team in a half of a championship game. High Point Central scored 60 in one half of the 1993 3-A finals.
Graham’s Simone Robinson was named her team’s outstanding player after scoring 18 points and pulling down 15 rebounds. Beth Miller added 17 points, and Courdne Miles had 11.
“We jumped out to a big lead, and they did a good job coming back,” Coach Cindi Simmons said. “Our team did a great job answering the run they made. We had to make some adjustments at halftime. We felt we had gotten away from our game and gotten into their game.”
DeGraffenreid said early foul trouble played a role in her being held to six points in the first half.
“I had two fouls so I had to play passive,” she said. “I was rested in the second half. I knew my energy would get the team going.”
“She’s the quarterback of our team,” Simmons said. “She’s a great creator with the ball.”
After a strong finish to the first half by the Lady Devils produced a 33-33 tie, the team’s played an action-packed third quarter.
Graham twice had brief leads, the last at 42-40 on Nikki Wilborn’s three-pointer with 5:14 on the clock.
Haggard’s jumper at the 4:30 mark put her team ahead to stay, 44-42.
The margin was just one with a half minute left in the third period when DeGraffenreid began to take over. She hit a three-pointer then converted a three-point play on a fast break for a 55-48 lead with 12 seconds on the clock.
Miller hit a three-pointer cutting the gap to 55-51 at the quarter break, but the shot would prove to be Graham’s last gasp.
DeGraffenreid was never better than the final eight minutes of her high school career as she burned the nets for 22 points. She scored 11 in a 13-2 run for a 68-53 lead with 5:07 on the clock.
Her four-point play at the 3:16 mark made it 74-58 and may have been the point when the large crowd of Lady Mustang supporters knew the trophy was coming back to Jackson County.
SM closed the game on a 9-1 spurt, including five by DeGraffenreid.
Nerves may have been a factor early as the teams combined for five turnovers in the first minute.
Graham had an 8-4 lead on Miles’ two free throws with 5:41 on the clock.
The Lady Mustangs quickly turned things around with 12 unanswered points. Haggard and Tasha Junaluska both hit three-pointers in the run, which was capped by Haggard’s jumper for a 16-8 margin at the 2:34 mark.
SM led 18-10 at the quarter break, and it was obvious by that time that the Lady Devils’ vaunted press was no match for DeGraffenreid and company.
The lead reached 31-20 on Haggard’s follow shot with 3:16 to play in the half.
Graham put together its best stretch of the game over the next three minutes to draw even. Miller had five in that span, and Robinson’s two free throws with 28 seconds left resulted in the 33-33 tie.
Robinson finished with nine points, Junaluska scored five, and Laury Brown had one.
Both teams committed 15 turnovers, and the rebounds were virtually even as SM had a 41-40 edge.
“We’re used to playing against bigger girls,” Woodard said. “They were smaller but quicker. We had to focus on boxing out.”
The difference in the game was superior shooting by the Lady Mustangs. They made 50.9 percent of their field goal tries while holding Graham to 37.7 percent.
SM was 22 of 31 from the foul line while the Lady Devils were 12 of 25.
“When the last couple of seconds were ticking down, it hit me,” Haggard said of her feelings moments after the game ended.
Although Graham is only about a half hour from Chapel Hill, Lady Mustang fans who made the nearly four and a half hour trip appeared to slightly outnumber Lady Devil supporters.
“Our fans are everything to us,” Woodard said.
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