SEYMOUR, Tenn. | With 4:45 to play in the third quarter, Scott High had all the momentum.
Zoey Terry had just hit a seemingly unmakeable shot through contact, and the Lady Highlanders had cut Seymour’s lead to 24-18.
With Scott High’s bench fired up, the Lady Highlanders had overcome a terribly slow start on the offensive end, and had bounced back from a 13-point halftime deficit against Region 2-3A’s top team. It felt like one more defensive stop, followed by one more made basket on the opposite end, would really turn the game on its nose.
But then things went into a tailspin. Nearly five minutes later, the horn sounded on the third quarter with Seymour having scored 11 straight points, and the Eagles led 35-18 heading into the fourth quarter.
At that point, the game was essentially over. But Scott High hadn’t gone down without a fight.
The Lady Highlanders, which were once 14-13 before four straight losses to end the season, had suffered a disappointing start to the postseason, losing twice in the District 4-3A tournament at Clinton. But if there was a hangover from the performance in Clinton, it didn’t show in Seymour Friday night. The Lady Highlanders had Seymour frustrated, and had observers throughout the region ready to punch the upset alert button.
It didn’t look like it would be that kind of game early.
A single Rachel Garrett free throw was all the offense the Lady Highlanders could muster in the first quarter. The defense, however, was good, and Seymour led by only nine points, 10-1, despite the bad start by the Lady Highlanders.
The second quarter saw Jaden Cummings score eight of her game-high 19 points, as Seymour widened its lead to 13 points at the half.
The Lady Highlanders, meanwhile, began to pick up a little steam offensively. Julie Lawson and Gracie Lewis both hit 3-point shots, and Brittany Morrow also scored a bucket.
Early in the third quarter was when things really began to click for the Lady Highlanders. Lawson hit another 3-pointer. Morrow scored. Riley Price scored. And then Terry hit the tough shot to make it a six-point game midway through the period.
After that, though, Chloe McCoy knocked down two 3-pointers for Seymour, sparking an 11-0 run that put the Eagles in charge.
The final period saw Lewis hit two more 3-pointers for the Lady Highlanders, while Terry also had a 3-pointer, but Seymour was on fire offensively by that point. Kelsey Cruz hit two 3-pointers to match Lewis’s production, and Cummings added four more points to her stat line as the Eagles hit cruise control late.
Friday’s game was the last for six Lady Highlander seniors. In addition to Terry and Price, closing out their careers in Friday’s game were Annalyne Woodward, Brianna Jeffers, Kaitlyn Butts and Jalin Young.
The team finished the season with 14 wins, the program’s most in a single season since the 2017-2018 season.
SCOTT (32): Lewis 9, Lawson 6, Terry 5, Morrow 4, R. Price 4, Young 2, Garrett 1, Woodward 1.
SEYMOUR (53): Cummings 19, C. McCoy 9, K. Cruz 8, B. McCoy 5, Schultz 5, Russell 4, Turner 3.
