McNabb, Payne, Hyde put up double digit points in win
Hiwassee Dam – In their first meeting of the season, the Hiwassee Dam Lady Eagles defeated Murphy 63-32.
It was a packed house Friday night as the two in-county rivals faced off.
Murphy was coming in on a three-game losing streak and Hiwassee Dam was fresh off of a win against Robbinsville on Dec. 16.
Brinkley Payne got the scoring started for the Lady Eagles as she converted two free throws for the first points of the game. The Lady Eagles went on to score 11 unanswered points when Murphy called a timeout. They tacked on six more points for 17 straight before Murphy got on the board as Ella Howard made a layup.
The Lady Eagles continued to score and took a 23-7 lead into the second quarter.
In the first minute of the second quarter, the Lady Eagles extended their lead to 20 points. With 5:37 left, Murphy called another timeout down by 22 points. Olivia McNabb drained two late free throws to give the Lady Eagles a 38-11 lead at halftime.
The Lady Eagles came out of halftime and did more of the same. Sky Taylor hit a three-pointer for Hiwassee Dam to surpass the 50-point mark in the game. Murphy added 11 points as the Lady Eagles took a 57-22 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
Two minutes into the fourth quarter, Payne hit two free throws for the Lady Eagles to surpass the 60-point mark. Murphy went on a run to put points on the board and held they held the Lady Eagles scoreless. Hiwassee Dam called a timeout to regroup with 1:35 left. The Lady Eagles went on to win the game 63-32 to defeat the Lady Bulldogs.
With the win, the Lady Eagles are undefeated against Big Smoky Mountain Conference competition this season.
Olivia McNabb led the team Friday night with 20 points. Payne had 17 points and Hyde had 10. The Lady Dogs were led by Emma Laney who had eight points and Marley Blackwell who had seven.
After the game, Lady Eagles head coach David Payne said, “I thought we played with good energy tonight. That’s something we’ve been talking about to be a little bit inconsistent and I thought we had pretty good energy. Defensively, I thought that we did a very good job trying to contest shots and get down on their shooters because they have outside shooters and we tried to not give them enough space to let them get going, so I thought defensively we set the tone with that.”