By Carey Phillips
Top-seeded Pisgah rolled to a 68-34 women’s basketball victory over fourth-seeded Smoky Mountain in the semifinals of the Mountain Seven Conference Tournament on Feb. 14 at Tuscola.
Cayce Lovelace scored 15 points for the Sugar Bears, mainly on three-point shooting. Maddie Rhea added 13, and Chloe Burch had 10.
Greenlee Flynn led the Lady Mustangs (13-11) with 11 points.
“We worked really hard to prepare for them,” Coach Ollin Dunford said. “I thought the girls were focused. We just had a hard time implementing anything once we were in that environment and stratosphere that Pisgah creates. It changes things. It started with a turnover here and there, then we run into that snowball effect.”
He added that Flynn got in early foul trouble.
Aiden Nicholson opened the scoring, but that would be SM’s only field goal of the first period.
Kennedy Barker ended a 10-1 run giving the Sugar Bears a 10-3 lead with 28 seconds to go in the opening quarter, which ended 10-4.
Pisgah took control with a 10-1 spurt, capped by Dot Mills’ three-pointer, making it 31-13 with 2:42 to play in the half.
The halftime margin was 37-18.
The lead reached 45-22 with 4:43 to play in the third period as Mills made two foul shots to end an 8-2 run, including four by Rhea.
The Sugar Bears closed the period with a 10-2 spurt, including a pair of three-pointers by Alyssa Smith, for a 55-26 lead.
Burch hit two free throws with 2:46 to play ending a 10-2 run for the game’s largest lead, 65-28.
Nine of Flynn’s points came from the foul line.
Aaliyah Voss added eight, Nicholson, Xaila Spencer and Alli Fortner all scored four, and Becca Corona-Smith had three.
