JASPER, Tenn. - What was expected to be a showdown for the top spot in District 6-A quickly turned into a showcase for Marion County's girls' basketball team. The Lady Warriors took control early Thursday evening and cruised past Lookout Valley 57-38, proving there is quite a gap at the top.
"They're big and athletic and very physical," Lady Jackets coach Darren Crownover said. "They're playing at a different level than we've seen this year.
"When you play really good teams, they shine a light on your weaknesses, and they sure showed us how far we have to go to compete with them."
After a back-and-forth first four minutes, Marion (12-1, 5-0) took the lead for good on an Emily Webb 3-pointer, one of five first-half treys by the hosts. From there the Lady Warriors were well on their way to claiming their ninth straight win, after a narrow loss to Class AAA's McMinn County.
As the Lady Warriors opened the second quarter on an 8-1 run to push their lead to double digits, Lookout Valley missed its first seven shots of the quarter. Marion then put the game away with a 10-2 run to begin the second half, never allowing its lead to dip below 12 the rest of the way.
Through the first three quarters, Marion limited the Lady Jackets (13-7, 5-2) to 22 points.
"For the past few years they were able to control the pace of the game, but I thought we did a nice job of keeping the tempo where we wanted it tonight," said Marion coach Randy Ellis, who has two seniors starting and two others coming off the bench as key contributors. "We took advantage of the transition game, and I thought we controlled things with our defense.
"There are lots of things to like about this team. We battle and scrap on defense, hustle for loose balls, we're deep and balanced. That's what makes us so tough."
As proof of the Lady Warriors' balance, they were led in scoring by junior point guard Breanna Vinson's 16 points, while Webb added 15 and post player Hannah Phillips scored 14.
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293. Follow him on Twitter @StephenHargis.