MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Like any good point guard, Madison Lee recognized what her team lacked and altered her usual role to fill the need.
Though Lee typically sets things up for teammates, she scored a career-high 30 points in leading top-ranked McMinn Central to a 65-53 victory over Greeneville in the quarterfinals of the Class AA state tournament at Middle Tennessee State University on Thursday.
“I’m a senior and I wanted to be aggressive and determine how I went out,” Lee said. “I just felt like my team needed me to do something extra, so I stepped up.
“This is our third straight year to be here, but we haven’t won it yet, so we all felt like we had something to prove.”
The Chargerettes will play eighth-ranked Westview today at 3:30 p.m. EST in the semifinals. Westview defeated Lewis County 57-47 on Thursday.
With McMinn Central’s leading scorer and rebounder, 6-foot-2 post Jenna Adams, sitting out more than 10 minutes of the first half, Lee scored 13 of her team’s 17 first-quarter points. She also was clutch in the fourth quarter, making 11 of 12 free throws.
As a team, McMinn Central (31-2) made 26 of 30 foul shots, including 16 of 19 in the fourth quarter.
TSSAA Class AA girls’ quarterfinalMcMINN CENTRAL 65, GREENEVILLE 53McMinn Central 17 12 14 22 — 65Greeneville 10 12 12 19 — 53McMinn Central (65) — Jenna Adams 14, Williams 4, Madison Lee 30, Massengil 7, Laura Purkey 10, Johnson, Wiley, Knox.Greeneville (53) — Chandler Christopher 16, Kelley 3, Shipley 2, Rainey Story 27, Fender 3, Shaw, Foulks 2.3-point goals: McMinn Central 1 (Lee); Greeneville 1 (Christopher). Records: McMinn Central 31-2; Greeneville 25-9.
“We shoot enough free throws every day in practice, we should be pretty good at them,” Chargerettes coach Johnny Morgan joked. “When Madison takes the ball to the bucket, we’re really good. She’s just really hard to defend, and we definitely needed her today.”
Adams scored the team’s first two points on a pair of free throws but was held scoreless the rest of the half. She sat out the final 3:34 of the first quarter with two fouls, then was called for her third 20 seconds into the second quarter and sat the final 7:40 of the half.
Without Adams, McMinn Central was outrebounded 20-10 in the first half. She scored the Chargerettes’ first six points of the second half, leading an 8-2 run that put them in command to stay.
“It was frustrating,” said Adams, who finished with 14 points and played the entire fourth quarter with four fouls. “I was sitting on the bench mostly trying to find ways to keep supporting the team.
“When I got back in, I knew I had to do something and play hard for as long as I could until I got another foul.”