Murphy – After losing an early week game to McMinn County (6-3) by a score of 70-28, the Lady Bulldogs registered their first win on Jan. 9, when they entertained Nantahala.
The Lady Bulldogs (1-10) jumped out to a 20-2 lead, then increased their lead in every quarter en route to their first win of the year as they defeated Nantahala (1-8) 72-20.
Murphy’s three big scorers scored most of their points in the first half. Cayla Greer scored eight of her 14 points in the first and led all Murphy scorers. Julia Dockery scored nine of her 12 points in the first half, while Emma Laney scored all her 10 points in the first half.
All that scoring in the first half help give the Lady Bulldogs 45-10 halftime lead.
The Lady Bulldog starters saw limited time in the second half, but the Murphy bench still outscored the Lady Hawks in the final two quarters. Coach Gary Thompson gave all of his players playing time in the final two stanzas.
Leading the scoring from that group was Kennedy White with 6 points and Jenna Cook with 4. Even with the starters out most of the second half, the Lady Dogs outscored Nantahala 27-11 to net the final outcome.
Thompson expressed his pleasure after the game and said he was happy with the girls first win. He added that the girls have played good defense all year and just had problems getting points, saying they worked on shooting in practice over the last week but still have more work to do.
The Lady Dogs had 72 points in the game, 57 rebounds and 21 steals. Following Laney on the rebound train were Patience Garrett and Emma Hensley with six apiece. Murphy shot 38 percent from the floor, 36 percent from 3-point land and 55 percent from the free-throw line.
In addition to Laney’s double figure scoring, she added eight rebounds and a steal for the Lady Dogs. Julia Dockery accounted for three of Murphy’s 16 steals in the game.
Nantahala was led by Zoey Passmore, who accounted for half of the Hawks’ points with 10.