By Kenneth Schott
DNJ Correspondent
WOODBURY, Tenn. — The magic ran out on the Cannon County Lionettes’ special season in the fourth quarter of their Class AA basketball state sectional Saturday night.
Top-ranked McMinn Central turned a late five-point deficit into a 62-54 win with a 12-0 run in coach Johnny Morgan’s 1,000th game.
The Lionettes (27-5) had a 46-41 lead when the Chargerettes (30-2) began their spurt.
“We had a great season,” said Cannon County coach Michael Dodgen, who spent his early years watching his father coach in McMinn County. “McMinn Central is one of the best teams in girls’ basketball. They’ve made it to the state tournament a lot of times,”
The Chargerettes gave full-court pressure from the tip.
“We’ve not played a team like that,” Dodgen said. “I thought we did a decent job with it. You’ve got to give credit to McMinn Central.”
The visitors built a 23-14 lead in the second quarter, when Madison Lee scored eight of her 12 first-half points, but the Lionettes responded. Taylor King scored on a 3-pointer and in the lane to cut into the deficit.
With King scoring 10 second-quarter points, the Lionettes closed out the first half with nine unanswered points, tying the game at 33.
“We told our team we had 16 more minutes to play,” Morgan said. “You can’t change anything that’s happened in the first 16 minutes. We have to go out and keep playing.”
The Lionettes went ahead 44-39 by the end of the third quarter. They forced the Chargerettes into four turnovers in the period and capitalized on them.
Conversely, Cannon County made five turnovers and couldn’t get anything going on offense in McMinn Central’s subsequent run. The Lionettes made two of their 15 shots in the fourth quarter; their first field goal of the period came with 1:32 left.
“We had some bad turnovers, and we tried to go one-on-one too much, and I take the blame for that,” Dodgen said. “We were trying to go at No. 24 (McMinn Central’s Elizabeth Masengill, who fouled out with 2:52 left).”
The Chargerettes converted free-throw opportunities during the run. They were 14-of-18 in the fourth quarter, 27-of-42 overall. The Lionettes were 15-of-26 from the line.
Lee scored 22 points, eight of them in the fourth quarter, and Massengill had 15.
King fouled with 4:16 left in the game. She had 14 points to lead the Lionettes.