Morristown West bests Grainger in final game of Ladies’ Classic
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GREENEVILLE—Morristown West roared from behind in the second quarter and went on to a 52-39 triumph over Grainger County Saturday morning in the consolation bracket finals of the Andrew Johnson Bank Ladies Classic at Hal Henard Gym.
The Lady Grizzlies grabbed a 14-8 lead after the opening quarter but West gunned in the first 15 points of the second stanza and went on to its ninth victory against five losses.
With the loss, Grainger fell to 6-8 for the season.
The Lady Trojans dropped their tournament opener to Cleveland on Wednesday and then won two early-morning contests by big margins as they get ready to travel to Cocke County.
Aubrie Messer pumped in 14 points to lead the Lady Trojans. Mia Dinkins had another good game and finished with 13. Delaney Weddington added nine points and six assists. Jhaniya Mitchell chipped in six and Kaylee Dyke five.
Maddie Hurst topped the Lady Grizzlies with 12 points while Adison Hayes had 8, Alyvia Sneed 7 and Marly Tanner 6.
Hurst scored seven and Hayes four as the Lady Grizzlies grabbed the first quarter lead. However, Grainger County went 6:49 without a point to start the second quarter and could never recover.
Weddington scored six points and Mia Dinkins five as the Lady Trojans went on their 14-point run in the second quarter and led 23-8 when Hayes hit two free throws for the Lady Grizzlies and Hurst added a basket to make it 23-18 at halftime.
The Lady Trojans built their martin to 43-24 entering the final eight minutes after a 20-6 scoring bulge in the third quarter when Messer scored eight and Dinkins five.
Grainger fought back early in the fourth frame as Sneed scored all of her points in a 13-2 run that chopped the lead down to 45-37 after a free throw by Hurst with 4:50 left in the game.
However, Dyke nailed a three from the left corner to restore the lead to 11. Two charity tosses by Hayes made it 48-39 before Messser’s layup with 2:42 to play and another inside bucket by Mitchell with 1:07 left closed the scoring.
Lady Trojans Coach Johnny Galyon said, “I thought we did a good job defensively. We mixed it up some and I thought overall we got some stuff done up here.
“Our posts did a good job and I thought Dinkins played well again. She got in a bit of foul trouble but it worked out.”
Galyon said, “We’ve got a tough week coming up at Cocke County and at East. It will be tough for us.”
The coach talked about the Lady Grizzlies, “They’re a good ball team. They have two or three players I think are good and Rusty (Bishop) does a good coaching job with them,” he added. “They’ll be all right.”
Galyon said, “This morning we missed some really easy shots early in the game and got down before we settled down a little bit.
“But we’re working and I think improving. Our best basketball is still ahead of us.”
Bishop said, “We couldn’t get much going on offense and that’s been the story of our season. We’re not a very good offensive team
“I thought we played pretty well in the first quarter and the fourth quarter we played pretty well,” he said. “We had a game play coming in that we had to keep them off the boards and keep them out of their transistion offense. We did not do either of those things.”
West made 22 of 47 from the floor for 47 percent including 7 of 20 three-point attempts. The Lady Grizzlies connected on 14 of 35 for 40 percent and finished 4 of 17 from behind the arc.
Grainger was 7 of 9 from the free throw line and West got there just twice, making one.
Hurst raked off seven rebounds and Tanner six as the Lady Grizzlies had a 28-17 rebounding margin. Messer pulled down six stray shots for West.
The Lady Trojans committed nine turnovers and the Lady Grizzlies had 14.

