Emme Colwell pushes past a Macon defender on her way to the hoop at Hooper Eblen Center. 

Lady Tigers second ends in region semis

The Lady Tigers made short work of Sequatchie County Friday night as they headed over the mountain to Dunlap and ended the Lady Indians’ season with a 71 to 48 thrashing in the quarter finals of the region tournament. The number-one team in the state, Macon County, showed DeKalb the same respect Monday night in the regional semi-final game, ending the Lady Tiger season with a 67  to 35 loss.

For the Lady Tigers, a 39-38 win over York in the consolation game of the district tourney last week had sent them to Dunlap to play Sequatchie which had finished second in their tourney.  Sequatchie lost to Cumberland County in the finals of the 7AA tourney and was seeded second even though they finished the season with a losing record at 11-17 while the Lady Tigers came in at 17-14.

The two squads last played Sequatchie in 2016 when DeKalb lost to the Lady Indians 60-57 in the regionals.

There would be no repeating of history as Kadee Ferrell had 10 points in the first quarter alone as the Lady Tigers mauled their hosts from the get-go, trailing 4-0 in the first minute before coming alive to take a lead they would never relinquish. Megan Caldwell added five to the first quarter scoring as the Lady Tigers stretched their advantage to 24-15 by the end of the opening frame. Contributing to the run was a tenacious press that had Sequatchie bumbling as they were called for several traveling violations, contributing to the DeKalb lead.

DeKalb’s hot shooting continued in the second as they stretched their lead to 20 points by the mid-part of quarter and led 42-19 by half with Ferrell nearly outscoring the Indians single-handedly as she had 16 in the opening half. The Indians did little to help themselves as they put up only four points in the second period.

Sequatchie got serious about matters in the third quarter as they rebounded from their 23-point deficit, cutting the spread to 11 by late in the stanza. The Lady Tigers clung to a 52-39 lead going into the fourth. The Sequatchie run would evaporate in the final frame as they found themselves down by 25 by mid-way through the fourth, 68-43. Helping spur the Lady Tiger resurgence was their excellence at the charity stripe as the Indians resorted to fouling in hopes of reeling in DeKalb. The strategy only ballooned the Lady Tiger advantage as DeKalb pulled away in the fourth as they went 12-for-14 from the foul line in the fourth quarter alone. Kadee Ferrell led her team in scoring on the night with 22. Megan Cantrell had 13 while Megan Walker had 10.

Their reward for winning in Dunlap -  a fourth game of the season against the state’s best team. Macon County had cleaned DeKalb’s clock in all three of their earlier meetings. That included a 57-31 shellacking in the semi-finals of the district tournament just one week before at Tennessee Tech before Macon went on to hammer Upperman to claim the district title. The Sequatchie win meant DeKalb would have to return to the scene of the crime, again having to face Macon County at Hooper Eblen Arena in Cookeville Monday night, in a win or go home situation as only the top two teams in the region get to advance to sub-state.

Their tall task came after their dream season last year in which they upset a heavily favored Cumberland County team in the first round of the regionals before upending Upperman in a huge upset. They then beat McMinn Central in the sub-state and made it to the state finals for the first time since 1965. They were eliminated in the first round in a close game against Marshall County.

However, Macon County saw to it that there would be no repeat of the Cinderella story for the Lady Tigers.