Murphy – About halfway through the second quarter of Murphy girls basketball team’s second-round matchup with Mitchell, things were not going well. The Lady Mountaineers were getting good looks on offense and making them, while stymying Murphy on the defensive end. Mitchell led 20-10, and head coach Ray Gutierrez was having flashbacks to the Lady Bulldogs 63-59 loss to Cherokee on Jan. 25.
In that game, Murphy had a slow start and tied the game in the fourth quarter before falling short. In this game, a switch flipped in the closing minutes of the second quarter, and the Lady Bulldogs never looked back. Murphy went on a 30-2 run across the second and third quarters, breaking open the game to advance past Mitchell 64-47 and into the third round of the N.C. High School Athletic Association 1A West playoffs.
“We had a timeout at the end of the (first) quarter and knew we just had start to playing our pace,” senior Torin Rogers said. “We were kind of rushing things, shots weren’t falling, but at the beginning of the second quarter we took a deep breath and started playing Murphy basketball.”
Murphy will host No. 8 seed Albemarle (19-7) on Saturday. Albemarle, which is also the Bulldogs, will be making a 268-mile trip west.
Murphy vs. Mitchell was a rematch of the last two regional finals, both wins for the Lady Bulldogs. Playing in the tough Western Highlands Conference, the Lady Mountaineers did not back down early. They came out in a man-to-man, while Murphy was expecting a 1-2-2 trap. On the other end, Mitchell was able to penetrate and get to the rim for layups, while also creating second chances with offensive rebounds.
“We knew we wanted to press them and we could effectively press them,” Gutierrez said. “The problem was we just could not score and didn’t do a good job rebounding.”
Once the Lady Bulldogs started to hit shots, they were able to press and go up-tempo, which the Lady Mountaineers had no answer for. A three-pointer by Rogers gave Murphy its first lead of the night at 23-22, and Addie Johnson added another before the end of the half to give the Lady Bulldogs a 26-22 lead heading into the locker room.
Rogers would finish with a game-high 23, while Johnson had 18 in a second straight strong playoff performance for the freshman. At one point across the third and fourth quarters, Johnson scored 12 straight points for Murphy.
“Addie’s been playing good right now,” Gutierrez said. “She’s shooting it good, she’s getting it to the rim, which is what we need. We need another threat.”
Murphy continued to push the pace in the third quarter. Mitchell struggled to take care of the ball, and the Lady Bulldogs were happy to take advantage. Murphy started the quarter on a 14-0 run, and the lead ballooned to 40-22.
The Lady Bulldogs led by as many as 22 in the fourth quarter, though the Lady Mountaineers didn’t go away easily. They got into the double bonus in the fourth quarter, and cut Murphy’s lead to 58-47 with 1:24 left. It didn’t get any closer, as Rogers hit six straight free throws to close out the win.
The late fouls, along with rebounding, is something Gutierrez knows needs to be better Saturday.
“We made some stupid fouls 90 feet from the basket,” Gutierrez said. “That’s the stupidest play in basketball when you’ve got a big lead in the fourth quarter, is to foul someone and put them on the free throw line that far away from the basket.”