DUNLAP, Tenn. - When facing the top seed in the district tournament, the game plan is to give yourself the best chance of pulling off an upset. By any means necessary.
With that in mind, Chattanooga Christian girls' basketball coach Laura Cottrell decided the best chance her team had of knocking off Bledsoe County in Friday night's District 7-AA semifinals was to hold the ball. Throughout all four quarters.
That game plan nearly worked. The Lady Chargers trailed by just two points midway through the fourth quarter before a quick scoring flurry by Bledsoe County led to a 15-7 win for the Lady Warriors.
"For us to only be down by just two in the fourth quarter, with a chance to be right there down the stretch, that was exactly why I felt like we had to do that," Cottrell said. "They're just bigger and stronger than us in the post, and they proved that the last time we played them, so we had to find a different approach. We had to keep the ball out of their hands as much as possible."
Bledsoe County (17-12) will face second-seeded Signal Mountain in tonight's championship game. Signal Mountain beat Notre Dame 49-37 in Friday's other semifinal.
The Lady Warriors won both regular-season meetings with the Lady Eagles. Bledsoe County and CCS split their regular-season series, with the Lady Chargers taking advantage of foul trouble by the Lady Warriors in the first meeting before Bledsoe County rolled to a 16-point win two weeks ago.
Once CCS (14-14) had possession in Friday's game - in each of the first three quarters - point guard Kate Dirkse would simply hold the ball near mid-court and the Lady Warriors defense sat back in a zone, allowing the Lady Chargers to run down the time.
The only scoring in the first half came from a Christon Roberts 3-pointer and a free throw by Keener, with both coming in the first quarter. Neither team scored in the second quarter, and once the second half began CCS scored back-to-back baskets late in the third to tie the game before Bledsoe scored to regain a 6-4 lead heading to the fourth.
Bledsoe got the ball inside to Keener for a quick basket early in the fourth, and after CCS missed three scoring chances during the next three minutes, the Lady Warriors essentially put the game away with another score by Keener in the post with 2:59 remaining.
"That was a really frustrating game," said Keener, who finished with a game-high nine points, including six in the fourth quarter. "I can only remember that happening once before in my career, where a team held the ball like that. But even then it wasn't for as long as in this game. It was crazy.
"We kind of felt like we had to score whenever we had the ball because we didn't know how long it would be before we got it back."
Signal Mountain (23-5) held a comfortable lead throughout its win over Notre Dame (9-15), led by Mary Witherspoon's 17 points and Kendall Davis' 13.
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293. Follow him on Twitter @StephenHargis.