Lady Highlanders end season with slow defeat

West Greene played a slow down game and found their way to the foul line to end the Lady Highlander’s season 39-27 in a drawn out night cap of the opening round of the district 2 tournament. The snail pace had G-P off-sync and only Iris Reeves found the flow. Her 15 were the only mark on the Highlander score card for more than five points and accounted for more than half the team’s offense. Reeves hit two foul shots and Brittany Reagan scored one in close to open a 4-1 lead in the game’s opening minutes. West Greene scored the next 15 points over a stretch of eight and a half minutes that last until the 4:46 mark of the second. An offensive foul call wiped off a Reeves score in the middle of the run. Reeves finally converted a three-point play, draining a foul shot to answer a set up three pointer by the Lady Buffs Kayla Ford. The score was G-P’s only scratch in the quarter that brought them to 16-7. West Greene hit four of six at the foul line over the last three minutes as neither team scored from the field in the closing of the second. The Lady Buffs slow down allowed them just six field goals in the first half, but it was good for a 20-7 lead. The Lady Highlanders reversed the first quarter 8-4 margin in the third. While limiting the Lady Buffs to two scores, G-P closed in to 24-15. Neither team came close to the net for the first four minutes. Reeves hit a j from the top of the key and followed it with a jumper from along the baseline to get things going again. Amanda Pinature drove through the lane to toss one up and in. West Greene’s Jaclyn Burger answered with a two that was a toe over the three-point arc. Reeves got the last bucket of the quarter. Lauren Everhart got her four points to keep it even. G-P battled the margin to six at 29-23 after Brittani Everhart scored off her offensive rebound and was followed by an aggressive move inside for a score by Reeves with 1:50 to play. The Lady Highlanders could get no closer as each of their fouls were sending West Greene to the line, while the Lady Buffs hovered one foul short of the bonus. WG hit five of six tosses over a thirty second period to make it 34-23. Brittani Everhart was fouled on a trey try and got two of the three to put the margin back to nine. The Lady Buffs went five of six over the last thirty-nine ticks as well against a lone score from Reeves to make the final margin. Both Everharts finished with four while Pinature and Reagan had a deuce each. West Greene scored 21 of their 39 from the foul line. G-P hit eleven field goals to the Lady Buffaloes nine. For West Greene Ford had 12 with her two treys and hitting six of ten tries in charity land. Burger had one basket but was seven of eight at the line for 9 points. Mardi Dewese scored 8 with a perfect four of four tries at the stripe. In the final totals, West Greene was 13 of 16 in the fourth and 18 of 28 for the contest. The Lady Highlanders were five of ten after hitting three of seven in the first half. Third seeded West Greene moves on to play second seeded Pigeon Forge, a 66-41 winner over Cumberland Gap, in the semi-finals Thursday night at Morristown-West.