Andrews – It was deja vu for Murphy in the Big Smoky Mountain Conference Tournament semifinals against Robbinsville.
When the two teams met previously on Jan. 26, the Lady Bulldogs led 40-27 in the third quarter before the Lady Knights rallied and pulled out a win. In this one, Murphy led 41-30 at halftime, then a 3-pointer from Lailee Holloway extended the lead to 44-30 on the first possession of the third quarter.
From there, the Lady Knights and Desta Trammell continued to creep closer. With Trammell running Robbinsville’s offense, the Lady Knights tied the game by the end of the third quarter, then made the necessary plays in the fourth quarter to hand Murphy a 76-69 loss on Feb. 14.
“You can’t fault their effort,” Lady Bulldogs head coach Gary Thompson said. “They gave it everything they had, they played their absolute tails off to the buzzer. We did make some mistakes, but you’re going to make mistakes.
“I can’t say enough. They just made more shots than us down the stretch.”
After shooting well in the Ken Solesbee Athletic Center during a first-round tournament win against Andrews on Feb. 10, the Lady Bulldogs (11-14 overall)stayed hot in the first half against Robbinsville. Sophomore Addie Johnson canned six 3-pointers, allowing Murphy to stay a step ahead of the Lady Knights.
Lochlan Rogers did a good job playing defense on Desta Trammell by trying to force her to go left, and she didn’t score in the second quarter. But in a foreshadowing of the second half, all the attention on Trammell allowed her to find open teammates and for them to be in position to get offensive rebounds for second chance opportunities.
Trammell would finish with 24 points, while Lailee Holloway had a game-high 25 and Johnson 24 to lead the Lady Bulldogs. Still, Murphy kept the Lady Knights at bay in the first half, and Rogers’ deep 3-pointer after running down the ball for a rebound put Murphy up by 11 points at halftime.
Robbinsville (17-7) threw different defense at the Lady Bulldogs in the second half, including a box-and-one on Johnson, and Murphy couldn’t quite adjust. The Lady Knights never went on a decisive run, instead taking advantage of empty Lady Bulldogs possessions to chip away at the lead.
Murphy played through Lailee Holloway for most of the second half. After her three-point play put the Lady Bulldogs ahead 53-46 with 3:14 left in the third quarter, Robbinsville went on a 7-0 run to tie the game before both teams scored again to even the score at 55.
A fast-break layup by Emma Laney gave Murphy a 62-61 lead early in the fourth quarter, but Trammell hit two free throws with 4:02 left to put Robbinsville up for good. The Lady Bulldogs had chances on their next few possessions to retake the lead or tie the game, but came up empty.
Trailing 65-63 with 3:00 left, Murphy was unable to corral the rebound off a Lady Knights missed free throw. On the ensuing inbounds play, 6-foot-2 Aubrie Wachacha caught the ball deep in the post for a layup and four-point Robbinsville lead, part of an 11-3 run that iced the game.
Thompson planned to give his team the day off as they didn’t play again until the first round of the state playoffs, but he said they wanted to get back in the gym and keep working. It fits the attitude Thompson wanted from his team this season, which continued after press time Tuesday with a four-hour road trip to East Wilkes for the first round of the state playoffs..
After some growing pains adjusting to a new coach and style of play, the Lady Bulldogs have continued to grow and not cower from a challenge since the calendar turned to 2023.
“We don’t care who we play, we’re not going to back down,” Thompson said. “We may not win, but we ain’t going to back down.”