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KINGSPORT—Daniel Boone’s hot shooting was too much for Morristown East to overcome Friday night as the Lady Trailblazers rolled to a 62-43 triumph in the opening round of the Region One 4-A Tournament at the Tribe Athletic Complex.

Although it was supposed to be a home game for Boone, its home gym has water damage and the Lady Blazers had been playing home games at Boone’s Creek Middle. However, that gym wasn’t big enough for a regional game by TSSAA specifications so it was played at the site of the District One Tournament, which was won by Daniel Boone.

The winners hit 5 of their first 6 shots and rebounded the miss for a layup in grabbing a quick 11-4 lead and never looked back in advancing to Monday night’s semifinals. The Lady Blazers will face West Ridge on Monday after the Lady Wolves topped Morristown West on Friday.

On the night, Boone hit 59.1 percent from the floor by making 26 of 44 including 9 of 21 three-point tries. East managed just 43.6 on 17 for 39 shooting and finished 5 of 17 from behind the arc in seeing its season end with a 12-18 mark.

The Lady Blazers led 17-9 after one quarter and stretched their advantage to 33-17 at halftime in improving to 24-8. The two teams had split a pair of close regular season contests.

Josie Jenkins knocked down one of her four three’s just 19 seconds into the game and led the winners’ balanced attack with 14 points. Kyleigh Bacon and Andrea Flores added 13 apiece and Lillie Walters had 10.

Ella Wampler paced the Lady Hurricanes with 14 while Hailey Hall scored 10 while hitting three triples.

It was the final game for East seniors Finley Surber and Chloe Slover.

Boone coach Justin Humphries said, “There’s a reason we played here. This was our fourth game in this gym and we’ve shot the ball well every single time.

“This wasn’t the kind of game I expected because East is a good basketball team and is very physical,” he added. “We played two close games and I thought it would be another one. When Josie is making three’s early her confidence goes through the roof. Then that pulls the defense out and we passed the ball well, got the looks we wanted and made a lot of layups.”

First year East coach Justin Combs said, “This is the toughest time of year for a coach in trying to figure out what to say to the girls when the season has ended. You know it has to come but you don’t want it to end unless you’re holding a gold ball. That’s everybody’s goal and dream.

“I felt it ended too soon for us,” he added. “I thought this team had more potential than the first round of the region but I just couldn’t figure out how to get us out of this funk that we’ve been in. You want to be playing your best basketball at tournament time but we really just haven’t played well since the last Jeff County game.

“We’ve struggled on both sides of the ball,” he said. “We struggled to get out of the low 40’s and we’ve been giving up 60 or so and that’s a bad combination. I told the girls I felt bad because I couldn’t figure out what to do. I kept thinking it was out there in front of us but in looking back I think we peaked way too early in the season.”

Combs went on to say, “I told the girls we have to grow from this season. I hate it for our two seniors that we couldn’t keep it going but I think our future is bright.

“I told the girls this season wasn’t a complete failure. Obviously there were lots of things we accomplished,” said Combs. “We had double-digit wins for the first time in a while. We had big wins over West and Jefferson County and finished second in the regular season.

“So I think this group certainly laid the foundation for this program to go forward and build on in the future. We just need to buy in to what our work areas are and work at them.”

In talking about the game, Combs stated, “They shot it well. Bacon and Flores had led them against us in the first two games and we came out kind of focused on stopping them and Jenkins really made us pay. I think she hit four three’s in the first half and it forced us to change what we wanted to do.

“They have a lot of ability to score the ball and their guards gave us problems in taking the ball to the basket as well as shooting it really well from the perimeter. They stretched our defense.

“Kudos to them for stepping up and making shots,” he said. “We got some offensive production from our posts but couldn’t get the ball to fall from the outside until late when the game had already been decided.”

Boone led 7-0 before Wampler’s basket got East on the scoreboard with 6:27 left in the first. Surber came back with a layup to chop the spread to three but Wallters and Bacon scored for Boone.

Wampler scored again for the Lady ‘Canes and Hailey Hall nailed a three and East was within two at 11-9 but that was as close of the game would ever get.

Jenkins and Flores made three’s to end the first quarter and then the same two knocked in triples to open the second and it was suddenly a 23-9 deficit. The Lady ‘Canes got it down to 10 a couple of times in the remainder of the half but every time they got that close, Boone hit a three to pull away again.

Jenkins’ fourth triple of the half put her team in front 33-17 at intermission.

The teams traded baskets in the third quarter until Jenkins drove for a layup and Kaylee Cox hit a three to make it 47-28. The first foul of the night on Daniel Boone came with 33.7 seconds left in the third quarter and Hudson Cloninger made one of the free throws before Bacon’s three-point play put the winners up 50-29 at the last rest stop.

Bacon scored first in the fourth quarter and East never got closer than 20 while the Lady ‘Blazers led by as many as 25 down the stretch.

Boone controlled the boards, 32-21, as Kiley Beach grabbed six rebounds and Bacon five. Surber pulled down seven and Wampler five for East.