MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – A disastrous third quarter put McMinn Central in too deep a hole to climb out of, and the Chargerettes fell 76-54 to Upperman in the semifinals of the girls’ Class AA state basketball tournament Friday evening.
After trailing by four points at halftime, the Chargerettes were outscored 26-14 in the third quarter.
“I thought from the get-go we were not in the game mentally,” said McMinn Central coach Johnny Morgan. “It wasn’t a matter of us losing focus. We never had it from the beginning. There were too many breakdowns and we just didn’t execute as well as they did, and that’s from the coaches on down.”
The Chargerettes (31-3), who were last year’s state runners-up, had won 20 straight games, all but two of those by double digits. But after trailing for all but 18 seconds of the first 10 minutes of the game, Upperman took the lead for good on a 3-pointer from Sarah Eldridge with 2:07 to go before halftime.
The Lady Bees then opened the second half with a 10-2 run, taking a commanding lead that never dipped below eight the rest of the way.