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Smoky Mountain women lose to Rabun County in first game
SM Stasha Nicholson scored 13 points and had 13 rebounds for Smoky Mountain in last week's 58-40 loss to Rabun County (Ga.) - Herald photo by Carey Phillips

Smoky Mountain fell behind early and never caught up as the Lady Mustangs dropped their basketball season opener to Rabun County (Ga.) 58-40 on Nov. 26 at the SM gym.

Becky Neff scored 18 points for the Lady Wildcats, and Ashlee DeFoor added 12.

Stasha Nicholson paced the Lady Mustangs with 13 points and 13 rebounds.

"We got off to a slow start and were unable to overcome it," Coach Cindi Simmons said. "We settled down and played better, but we had put ourselves in a hole and couldn't climb out of it."

SM went nearly five minutes without scoring until Nicholson had the season's first basket with 3:15 left in the first quarter. Rabun was also having trouble finding the range and led just 5-2 at the time.

The Lady Wildcats were up 11-4 at the quarter break.

Nicholson's free throw brought her team within 19-13 with 3:27 remaining in the half, but SM failed to score again in the period.

Latoya Beck had the last five points of the half, and Rabun led 25-13 at intermission.

A three-pointer by Logan English pushed the margin to 32-17 with 4:39 left in the third stanza, which ended with Rabun leading 36-24.

The Lady Mustangs were still within striking distance when Jennifer Hyatt's driving shot cut the gap to 41-31 with 4:39 left in the game.

The Lady Wildcats regained control with the next six points, including four by Neff, for a 47-31 lead at the 2:27 mark.

The final accounted for the game's largest lead.

Nicholson's points came on four field goals and five free throws.

Hyatt finished with eight points, Kristine Webb followed with seven, Leslie Mathis netted four, Tori Kelly scored three, Katie Crisp and Danielle Bowers both had two and Kat Quinn hit a free throw.

Hyatt handed out four assists.

Rabun won the JV game 50-22. The Lady Wildcats led at quarter breaks by scores of 12-6, 28-8 and 40-14.

Ameka Buchanan scored eight points and had 11 rebounds for the Lady Mustangs. Katie Johnson pulled down 10 boards, and Brittany Frizzell recorded three assists and four steals.

"We have a big team this year and with that comes a lot of different personalities," Coach Karla Phillips said. "It can be difficult to come together as one team when they've been rivals up until this point. We saw what we needed to work on, and as we start to come together and learn one another, we will start putting Ws in our win-loss column."

Back to Sports: 12/06/02.