Lady Eagles drop final two regular season games

After a disappointing week on the hardwood was followed by a string of individual awards to culminate a strong regular season, the Seymour Lady Eagles will sit in the catbird’s seat in this week’s 3-2A District Tournament at Alcoa High School. Seymour (18-8, 9-1) picked up their lone win last week with a 59-27 blowout over Rutledge on Monday before falling in their final two contests of the regular season, taking a 59-57 upset loss to Claiborne County on Tuesday and a 48-25 pounding to defending AAA State Champion Sevier County on Thursday. The Lady Eagles, who clinched the regular season district title with a win over Gibbs on Valentines Day, received some good news Friday when junior forward Brooke Johnson was named District Most Valuable Player and senior wing Danielle Wolfe, and junior point guard Heather Wright were named to the All-District team at a pre-tournament coaches conference. In addition, first year Lady Eagles’ Coach Randy Moore was named the 2002/2003 District Coach of the Year for directing the team to their first ever 3-2A regular season title. This is the fourth consecutive Coach of the Year honor for Moore, who took over the reins of the Lady Eagles last spring, all the while still coaching his Seymour Eagles boy’s team. Moore had won three consecutive Boy’s Coach of the Year honors before receiving his first award for coaching the girls. “I think as the girls have adapted to Coach Moore’s style of play, they’ve become better and better,” said longtime Seymour High School Athletics Director Gary Householder, who proclaimed Moore ‘the best high school basketball coach in East Tennessee’ after he was hired to coach the Lady Eagles last spring. “As more girls become comfortable in his system, they start to contribute—and any added depth helps.” Householder made those comments immedietly following the win over Gibbs that clinched the regular season title for the Lady Eagles. Householder had no way of knowing that Moore would win District Coach of the Year, but at that time, the writing was already on the wall after Moore had directed the team to eight wins in nine games to claim the school’s first regular season 3-2A girls basketball title. “In all honesty, it’s the players that win the awards,” Moore humbly stated Monday morning before leaving to coach his boys team in a first round tournament game against Gibbs. “My biggest statement is: I want to thank the girls for adapting to me. If the girls don’t step up, I don’t win it.” Johnson, who was named to the team last season as a sophomore, has taken on a new role while playing for Moore, and judging from the final month of the regular season, she is beginning to flourish in that role. “I think it (winning district MVP) was a great honor for Brooke,” said Moore. “She’s worked hard adjusting to a new coach and accepting different responsibilities.” As for the tandem of Wolfe and Wright, Moore said that the two guards have stepped it up in important games, and played a crucial role in leading the team to a regular season championship. “I think Heather and Danielle have both stepped it up in big games,” Moore added. “They’ve both played real well in district games and have played a big part in getting this team to where it is.” Seymour received a bye in this week’s district tournament virtue of their first place regular season finish. They the play winner of the Gibbs and Alcoa game on Tuesday at 4:30. “The girls are automatically in the semifinal round,” said Moore. “We need to pick our intensity level back up this week after two consecutive losses, which I attribute to losing focus after we wrapped up the regular season championship.” After blasting Rutledge on Monday, the Lady Eagles fell 59-57 to the Claiborne County Lady Blue Devils on the road 24 hours later. The loss to Claiborne County was only the Lady Eagles’ second loss to a AA squad this season, the other being a close setback to district foe Austin-East early in the season. The Claiborne County loss was decided at the free throw line, where the home team connected on an astounding 31-32 freebies in the game compared to a 14-23 clip for Seymour. Despite the disproportionate free throw shooting, Seymour climbed back into it after trailing 36-29 at the half. Wolfe, who was scoreless in the first three quarters, helped her team back into the thick of things by tallying eight fourth quarter points, including two treys. Johnson had scored 10 of her 19-points in the third to tie the game going into the fourth, but the Lady Blue Devils hit their free throws down the stretch to pick up the upset win. Seymour scoring: Brooke Johnson 19; Ashley Murphy 7; Alesha Norwood 6; Shandan Notgrass 4; Gina Ownby 1; Jesse Peterson 9; Danielle Wolfe 8. Claiborne County scoring: Julie Arnold 4; Abby Debusk 19; Cathy Fraley 12; Kelli Porter 4; Pam Ramsey 6; Jesse Redmond 14. The Lady Eagles had a glaring match-up problem in Thursday nights tilt against the Bearettes, and were never really in the game. Sevier County used a smothering full-court press and jumped out to a quick 14-5 first quarter lead, and despite limiting the Bearettes to just one field goal in the second period while outscoring the visitors 11-2, the Lady Eagles suffered through an ice cold third quarter on their way to a 48-25 loss. Seymour scoring: Brooke Johnosn 8; Ashley Murphy 1; Alesha Norwood 4; Jesse Peterson 6; Reija Rounela 3; Danielle Wolfe 3; Heather Wright 2. Sevier County scoring: Tina Broyhill 7; Whitney Fleming 9; Nicole Franklin 3; Katie Porter 2; Kristi Redding 6; Melissa Uner 10; Brooke Wilhoite 11.