MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Several small scoring runs, at least one of 6-0 in all four quarters, added up to an insurmountable advantage for South Greene and eventually a 73-53 victory over Polk County in the Class AA girls’ state tournament quarterfinals at Murphy Center.
The most damaging of the scoring runs came late in the third quarter when nine unanswered points extended the lead to 16. Polk County never got closer than nine after that point.
The Lady Rebels, who are making the 26th state tournament appearance in program history, will play Gibson County Friday at 2 p.m. (Eastern) in the semifinals. Gibson County, which blasted Christ Presbyterian Academy 55-35 in an earlier quarterfinal, is led by Miss Basketball finalist Heather Butler, a 2,000-point career scorer who had 33 points in Wednesday’s win.
South Greene (26-6) used a 6-0 run to end the first quarter to take the lead, then expanded it just before halftime with five consecutive points.
Stephen has covered high school sports in the tri-state area since the early 1990s, starting at the News-Free Press as a 19-year-old reporter. He has been with the Times Free Press since its inception and has been an assistant sports editor for more than seven years. Stephen is among the most decorated writers in the TFP’s newsroom, winning numerous state and regional awards for his writing on high school athletics. He has two children, Riley ...
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