The Tyner Lady Rams hope to change the narrative this season. And not just for themselves.
No girls’ basketball team from a public school in Chattanooga has made a TSSAA state tournament appearance since Arts & Sciences was a Class 1A quarterfinalist in 2010, but the Lady Rams believe they have something special in the works this winter.
Tyner has given others no reason to doubt its determination so far as its streak of consecutive wins stretched to a dozen with senior point guard Mariya Staton scoring 19 points and adding five assists in Saturday’s 59-49 victory over Ooltewah in the Times Free Press Best of Preps semifinals at Chattanooga State.
The Lady Rams (12-1) continued their hot shooting from beyond the arc as they made eight 3-pointers, which included three in the second half from senior Leya Mitchell. Two games into the tournament, they have made 17 3-pointers heading into Monday’s 7 p.m. championship matchup with Notre Dame (10-5), which took down Boyd Buchanan in the other girls’ semifinal, 57-35, behind sophomore MiMi Lee’s 22 points and seven steals.
“We are waking some people up,” said fourth-year Lady Rams head coach Xavier Marshall, whose team has not lost a game since Nov. 18. “That’s the reason our whole coaching staff has on the shirt, ‘Support Women’s Basketball.’ We want them to know that we have some talent here in Chattanooga.