If there was one word or phrase to describe the attitude of the Murphy girls basketball team as they took to the floor at Robbinsville on Saturday, it would be “ready.”
The Lady Bulldogs, who had previously fallen in their past two meetings with the Lady Black Knights – the last of which awarded Robbinsville the Smoky Mountain Conference Title for the season – were locked and loaded in their Elite Eight game and got their hard-earned revenge on Robbinsville, knocking the Lady Black Knights out of the N.C. High School Athletics Association 1A Girls Basketball Championships with a gritty and dominant 49-37 victory.
“We’ve worked hard,” Murphy coach Ray Gutierrez said of the Lady Bulldogs’ gutsy win. “We’ve got champions in that locker room, conference champions, state champions – we’ve got the heart of champions in that locker room and I just saw the look in their eyes during this playoff run. I’ve always said that we’re a playoff team, with as much stuff as we do it’s hard to prep for us and we had a great scheme going into the game. I’m super proud of the kids.”
The Lady Bulldogs jumped on the Lady Knights right out of the gate, with senior guard Kaiya Pickens raining down three 3-pointers on Robbinsville in the opening quarter – one more than the entire Murphy team made in their loss to Robbinsville on Feb. 18.
“She’s been shooting it really well this playoff run,” Gutierrez said of Picken’s shooting. “She’s hit 15 3-pointers in the past two games and got hot tonight.”
Along with a few tough baskets from junior forward Torin Rogers and senior forward Sarah Pullium, the Lady Bulldogs closed the opening quarter with a 15-9 lead.
Murphy continued to find its flow in the second quarter as junior guard Amber Martin knocked down a pair of triples and the Lady Bulldogs’ defense suffocated the Lady Knights at the point of attack, holding Robbinsville to only six points in the second quarter and opening up a 32-15 lead at the half for Murphy.
One of the key adjustments made by Murphy on the defensive end shined brightly on Saturday as the Lady Bulldogs’ defense executed Gutierrez’s scheme to perfection.
The Lady Bulldogs guards on the perimeter stayed out on Robbinsville’s shooters – including stand out point guard Desta Trammell, who gave Murphy fits in the first two games – in order to prevent any 3-point attempts and when the Lady Knights drove past them, Murphy’s guards forced the ball-handlers into help defenders waiting at the basket that provided key rim protection.
“We wanted to make it hard for her (Trammell),” Gutierrez said. “Force her left, run her down to our bigs and we ran great help all night. She’s a great player, one of the best
point guards in the state and we knew that we just had to make her work for everything she got.”
Murphy opened the second half a little shaky, with the Lady Knights whittling down the Lady Bulldogs’ lead to 13 at a few points.
But Murphy’s defense held and the Lady Bulldogs made key plays down the stretch in the fourth quarter to hold off Robbinsville for the victory.
Pickens finished with 10 points on the night, while Rogers pulled down a double-double of 19 points and 21 rebounds.
Martin finished with a trio of 3-pointers on her way to nine points, while Pullium tallied 10 points.
Now the Lady Bulldogs will face a familiar foe on the road – the Mitchell Lady Mountainiers, who Murphy defeated in the Final Four last season.
“We played them last year and it was a fight to the very end,” Gutierrez said. “They’re really well coached and I know their coach well. We joked that we’d probably be seeing each other in the playoffs. We didn’t know it would be in the Final Four again, but here we are. It’s going to be tough going there on the road, but we’re 3-0 on the road this playoff run and we don’t mind it.”
The showdown will be the Lady Bulldogs’ fourth Final Four in as many year, as feat that is hard to comprehend.
“There’s something special about Murphy,” Rogers said. “That’s really the only way to descibe it. Special people, special place, special fans and I’m just really glad I’m a part of it and exicted to go to another Final Four.”
Murphy faced off against Mitchell in the Final Four on Tuesday after the Cherokee Scout’s press time.