LADY RED IN TITLE GAME

BY STEVE WILHOIT
SPORTS WRITER

Neighboring Cocke County advanced to the Ladies Classic championship contest with a 60-45 win over South Greene in semifinal play Wednesday night.

The Lady Red (13-2) pulled away in the latter stages to knock off the Lady Rebels (7-4) in a rematch of a regular season match-up from Dec. 3. Cocke County won that game on its home court in double overtime.

“South Greene is really scrappy but so are we,” said CC head coach Wade Wester. “I love our tenacity and we’re playing with a lot of confidence and chemistry, plus we did it in a sub-state atmosphere.”

Wednesday’s game was a tightly-contested one much of the way which was punctuated by runs.

After a nip-and-tuck opening period, an 11-2 run propelled CC into a31-21 lead at the half. SG answered with seven straight tallies to open the third but the Lady Red closed well in the quarter and grabbed a 41-31 advantage as senior Morgan Buda buried a jumper at the buzzer. Cocke County led by as much as 16 in the final frame before withstanding a final mini-run by the Lady Rebs.

The imposing post game of Cocke County was again impressive. Alley Sprouse dropped in 18 points, grabbed six rebounds and blocked four shots. Shannon Depew collected a double-double with 11 points and 13 boards. Jalese Pruitt was also a major factor with 12 points and eight rebounds. Buda fired in nine points and doled out eight assists.

For South Greene, Shelby Hicks and Brandi Crum fired home 11 points each. Freshman Maelyn Cutshaw contributed six points, five rebounds and four assists.

The Lady Red shot well from the floor (25-of-51 for 49 percent). The Lady Rebels were just 19-of-54 (35.2 percent) and 1-of-14 (7.1 percent) on its trey attempts.

Cocke Co. (60): Buda 3-6 2-5 9, Lane 1-5 0-0 3, Walker 1-5 0-1 2, Jalese Pruitt 6-12 0-0 12, Shannon Depew 4-10 3-4 11, Ray 0-0 0-0 0, C. Ball 2-3 1-3 5, N. Ball 0-1 0-0 0, Alley Sprouse 8-9 2-5 18. TOTALS:25-51 8-18 60.

South Greene (45): Dye 1-11 4-5 6, Ricker 1-6 1-3 3, Cutshaw 3-9 0-0 6, Crum 5-11 0-0 11, Shelby Hicks 5-8 1-2 11, Renner 0-1 0-0 0, Wilhoit0-0 0-0 0, Tweed 3-7 0-1 6, Waddell 1-1 0-0 2. TOTALS: 19-54 6-10 45.

3-Point Goals: CC-2 (Buda, Lane). SG-1 (Crum).

Score by quarters:

Cocke  Co.  13  18 10  19--60
South Greene 14      7  10    14--45