The bad news for Lookout Valley's Lady Yellow Jackets in their District 4-A high school basketball game Friday night was the way Tellico Plains started the second half. The worse news for them was the way the Lady Bears had started the first half.
The starts to halves were Tellico's two biggest runs, and the Lady Bears showed why they're the No. 6-ranked team in the state by defeating host Lookout Valley 80-29.
Tellico (19-1, 6-0) clinched at least a share of the district regular-season title with the victory and will be the top seed when it hosts the district tournament next month.
Despite two lopsided losses to the Lady Bears - the one at Tellico wasn't as bad (29 points) - Lookout Valley (10-12, 5-2) is still in position to be the No. 2-seeded team in the tournament.
"We could still get a (first-round) bye by being the two seed," Lookout Valley coach Darren Crownover said. "That would be great, but we've got a lot of work to do on that. We've got a tough Sale Creek team coming here on Tuesday. They've played better and better. We had a nip-and-tuck game over there."
It was shooting boom against shooting gloom throughout Friday's game, starting with Tellico scoring the first 22 points. The run to start the second half was only 16 consecutive.
"Our press has been good to us," Tellico coach Gary Tucker said. "We don't always stay in it as long as we did tonight, but it's been a key to our good starts."
Had the second quarter been the first, the Lady Jackets would've been down 13-11 after the first eight minutes. But being down 25-3 after one period had to be demoralizing.
"Sometimes you've just got to tip your hat," said Crownover, who noted he thought the Lady Bears would've had more than the 11 3-point shots they made. "They played really well. They shot the ball really well. They're hard to guard as it is. When they shoot like that, they're definitely hard to guard."
Chloe Yearwood topped Tellico with 22 points and led the 3-point barrage with five. Samantha Russell ran the show and contributed 21 points that included three 3-pointers.
"We're capable of shooting the ball like that, but we don't shoot the ball that well all the time," Tucker said. "We have a very unselfish team. Samantha is tall enough to see the floor real well. She gets us going."
Jaden Hollinghead had 18 points for the Lady Bears and Callie Kirkpatrick chipped in with 11.
Rainey Barber was Lookout Valley's leading scorer with 10 points.
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him on Twitter @KelleySmiddie.