CCS, Notre Dame basketball teams fall in district semifinals

Notre Dame girls' basketball coach Jason Hill (lower right) and some of his players along with assistant coach De Lamb (above) watching some of the action before the Lady Irish played. It was Hill's birthday, but not a very happy one after his team's 53-14 loss.
Notre Dame girls' basketball coach Jason Hill (lower right) and some of his players along with assistant coach De Lamb (above) watching some of the action before the Lady Irish played. It was Hill's birthday, but not a very happy one after his team's 53-14 loss.

It was a clean sweep for the teams from Knoxville over the teams from Chattanooga in Friday's semifinals in the first Division II-A East Region high school basketball tournament. Not even the District 2 champions, Chattanooga Christian's boys and Notre Dame's girls, could do anything with the District 1 runners-up.

The Chargers stayed close for a half with Knoxville Webb before falling 72-60.

The Lady Irish picked a bad time to have what Notre Dame coach Jason Hill called "our worst game of the season" - a 53-15 loss to Christian Academy of Knoxville.

The tournament at Notre Dame concludes today. Webb play Grace Christian in today's boys' final at 5:30 p.m. CAK will face Webb for the girls' championship at 4.

Notre Dame's girls and boys will play the CCS teams for third place at 1 and 2:30. All eight teams will move on to the state tournament.

-Knoxville Webb boys 72, CCS 60: Amos Davenport made a 3-pointer from the left corner at the halftime buzzer to get CCS (23-6) within 30-25. But then the Chargers were done in by an 11-0 Webb run to start the second half.

"We fought back and got within five before halftime, then we just couldn't get our offense going," CCS coach Eddie Salter said. "We had some turnovers in the third quarter right off the bat that led to some layups for them. We just couldn't seem to recover after that."

Myles Rasnick scored 32 points in the win. The Spartans also got 15 from Emory Lanier and 10 from Chase Ridenour.

John Rhodes and Michael Hogue had 15 points each for the Chargers and Davenport ended with 12.

-CAK girls 53, Notre Dame 15: Hill could've had a much happier birthday, but the first bit of bad news he received was that his leading rebounder and shot blocker, Mackenzie Johnson, had been diagnosed with the flu and would not be able to play.

So to compensate for her absence inside, the Lady Irish put up 21 shots from behind the arc. Not one went in.

"I don't know that we could've played much worse offensively or defensively," Hill said. "I think part of our girls' mentality is that Mackenzie will clean some of those things up. It makes life a little easier when you have a size advantage inside. It changed what we do. I don't think we were confident from the jump ball tonight."

Amber Heatherly led CAK with 20 points and Claire Brock chipped in with 15.

Kelci Sparks' eight was high for the Lady Irish (23-10).

-Knoxville Grace Christian boys 49, Notre Dame 32: The Rams increased a three-point lead to 28-13 with a 12-0 run that started midway through the second quarter. Post player Baylor Younker made two free throws 2:15 before the half for their first double-digit lead, and they maintained it the rest of the way.

Younker topped Grace Christian (23-6) with 12 points and C.J. Gettelfinger and Grant Ledford contributed 10 each.

Notre Dame (22-12) was led by Nolan Corbitt's eight.

-Knoxville Webb girls 57, CCS 29: The Lady Spartans' swarming defense held CCS below double digits in each of the first three quarters. By the time the Lady Chargers broke through with 10 in the fourth, Webb already had enough through three quarters (36) to win the game.

Haylee Luttrell and Casey Collier totaled 13 points apiece for the Lady Spartans.

Addie Henry paced CCS (21-8) with 10 points - all in the second half.

Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him on Twitter @KelleySmiddie.

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