Molly Masingale continues to lead the push as the McMinn Central girls' basketball program seeks its first state title since 2011.
The 5-foot-9 guard scored a game-high 29 points Thursday as the Chargerettes took down Gatlinburg-Pittman 62-50 in a TSSAA Class 2A quarterfinal at the BlueCross State Championships.
She also had three steals during the game at Middle Tennessee State University's Murphy Center, and she has scored at least 29 points four times during her junior season. That includes 32 against Alcoa in the season opener and 30 while helping the Chargerettes hand Class 4A powerhouse Bradley Central its lone defeat of the season.
With McMinn Central trailing Gatlinburg-Pittman 28-27 at halftime, Masingale shook off a rusty first-half performance from 3-point range, where she started 0-for-5. The left-handed shooter was 2-for-3 from beyond the arc in the second half, though, and made 13 of her 14 free throws in the game to help McMinn Central go 26-for-32 at the foul line.
Sophomore Karina Bystry had 15 points and 10 rebounds for the Chargerettes (27-7), who closed out the win with an 18-8 advantage in the final quarter. Maddy Newman had 19 points and Nya Burns 14 for Gatlinburg-Pittman (28-6).
McMinn Central, making its first appearance at state since 2016, advances to Friday's semifinals and will face Gibson County (28-8) at 5:30 p.m. Eastern. The Lady Pioneers advanced with a 60-37 win against Riverside in Thursday's first quarterfinal.
Gibson County's Micah Hart and Evyn Cantrell have a combined average of more than 34 points per game this season.
Masingale has scored 158 points in seven postseason victories and has made 142 of 176 (86.4%) of her free throws this season while averaging 20 points per game. Bystry has averaged 17.5 points for legendary coach Johnny Morgan's squad.
Contact Patrick MacCoon at pmaccoon@timesfreepress.com.