MAGNET COVE -- Mountain Pine could not get its offense going Monday night as the Magnet Cove Lady Panthers earned a 65-11 blowout in the first round of the Battle at the Cove tournament at Panther Arena.
Holding Mountain Pine to just 5 points in the first half, Magnet Cove did not relent as the hosts outscored the visitors by a landslide in all four quarters, invoking mercy rule for the final eight minutes of the game.
"I think we played really well," Magnet Cove head coach Jeremy Hall said. "We've had some really tough games early in the year. We've talked about it. We had a week off to kind of regroup, refocus and kind of figure out how to play together as a team; we did that tonight. Doing five in and five out, the girls really bought in and played as hard as they could. It was really fun to watch."
In the opening frame, Mountain Pine got on the board early after hitting a layup and a pair of free throws by junior Shalayla Delaney, but the Lady Panthers blew past their opponent for good, putting up 24 points of their own sealed by senior Riley Green's back-to-back 3-pointers and another by sophomore Karsen Davis.
Senior Kailyn Harville snapped a quick pass from the post to the outside finding classmate Kaitlyn Fletcher, who buried one from behind the arc followed by an and-one for the four-point play, and Green's second trey trickled in as time expired in the first.
Magnet Cove fueled a 7-point run before allowing Mountain Pine's lone score by Dymond Barris from the free throw line. Fletcher added a layup with just over two minutes off the clock to push the Lady Panthers out to a 31-5 lead.
Fletcher put in a layup as Magnet Cove crowded the court with back-and-forth work highlighted by multiple steals to set the stage for consecutive scores, including a pair of field goals by Riley and another easy layup by Fletcher made it 29-5 with 3:10 remaining in the half. Another shot by the Lady Panthers from 3-point range left the score, 42-5, at halftime.
"We've got a ways to go," said Mountain Pine head coach LaMont Page, who has taken over the girls team for the first season. "This is my first year taking over the girls and so, it's going to be a process. it's not going to be an overnight thing, but we're going to work hard, we're going to play hard, and that's all I can ask of them.
"We have three seniors in this group, and I have some promising youngsters coming up. We're going to keep working and once they get used to my coaching style, my program, I think we'll be fine. Regardless of the score, I just want them to play hard and not ever give up."
With just a minute off the clock in the third, Delaney hit two free throws for Mountain Pine. Sophomore Gracie Richardson answered with a layup, and Green buried a trey before Richardson grabbed a steal and regained possession for Magnet Cove. Another layup by Richardson left the spread, 57-7, going into the fourth period.
Barris hit four straight free throws, and with a minute left in the game, sophomore Riley Matthews heated things up late with three back-to-back steals and three straight scores to set the final.
Green put 17 points to lead the Lady Panthers while adding a rebound, an assist and 3 steals. Fletcher and Davis added 9 points each, Davis with 4 rebounds and 2 steals and Fletcher with 3 boards and 3 steals. Zoee Rednour paced the defense with 2 steals, 2 rebounds while adding 7 points.
"Karsen Davis [and] Riley Green had a bunch of big shots down the way," said Hall. "Kaitlyn Fletcher and Zoee Rednour did a great job of distributing the ball, handling pressure up top. Jamie Kelley and Emma Golden are great energy players for us; [they] got a lot of turnovers and deflections. We blocked out really well tonight; we're so small so we really have to do [that] and we did a great job of that tonight in limiting offensive boards and second-chance points for the other team."
For Mountain Pine, Lexi Tedford pulled down 2 rebounds while earning 1 steal. Delaney tallied 4 points and 2 boards, and Barris added 2 rebounds and 3 points.
"I really hope they carry over that 'team-first' mentality because when they do that, they're really fun to watch," Hall added. "We've got Ouachita Thursday night so that's big; it's been a while since we've been in the finals of our own tournament, so we've got to play Ouachita really tough Thursday and hopefully win that one. They're kind of a rival, too.
"Then we turn around Friday and play a conference game so it's going to be a really quick turn around. We've got to be able to take care of business."
Sports on 12/04/2019