Whitwell girls open district tournament with blowout win

Basketball hoop background
Basketball hoop background

WHITWELL, Tenn. - Whitwell's girls' basketball team put last week's frustrations to rest quickly in Thursday night's District 5-A tournament semifinal, and it had nothing to do with complex changes in scheme.

"The big difference was just our effort level," Lady Tigers coach Eric Zensen said after his team opened the postseason with a convincing 79-55 win over county rival South Pittsburg. "I thought it was really just that simple."

Whitwell will face Van Buren County in Saturday's district championship game at 7 p.m. EST, and South Pittsburg will face Richard Hardy in a consolation game, also on Saturday. Van Buren defeated Richard Hardy 73-53 in Thursday's early semifinal.

Whitwell had entered last week unbeaten in the district but lost two consecutive games to end the regular season, including at South Pittsburg. But after trailing in the opening minutes Thursday, the Lady Tigers turned up the defensive pressure and an 8-2 run followed, giving the hosts the lead for good midway through the first quarter.

The lead stretched to double digits by the end of the quarter, and although the Lady Pirates cut the deficit to five late in the second, Whitwell answered with an 11-0 run in the third that put the game away.

Seneca Barnett scored 12 of her game-high 27 points in the first quarter, including both of her 3-pointers, and Abbi Cartwright was instrumental in the second-half run, scoring 11 of her 21 points in the third.

"I think we were a lot more determined to get stops tonight," Cartwright said. "Our goal was to play harder and with a lot more heart than we had shown last week. Playing against a rival that had just beaten us probably helped to get our attention, too."

After making just 21 percent of its field-goal attempts in last week's loss to the Lady Pirates, Whitwell connected on 54 percent Thursday and forced 26 turnovers.

"Our offense really feeds off the energy our defense creates," Zensen said. "Obviously we shot it a lot better tonight, but a lot of that also had to do with the fact we were getting some pretty easy looks that came off turnovers.

"We were more aggressive on both ends, and I really thought we made them earn every point they got tonight."

Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293.

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