GRAY DEYOSports Writer

The Lady Panthers basketball squad was able to fend off the Lady Bobcats, winning 46-30, and putting West’s season to an end.

Some strong interior defense from East led to the majority of West’s offense taking place behind the three-point line. The Lady Bobcats were getting good looks and paid off on some of them—scoring five in the game—but could not hit enough to catch East in the contest.

The West girls’ scoring was led by forward Ashleigh Johnson. She scored a team-high nine points in the game. Overall as a team, it wasn’t the end result of the season that the Lady Bobcats wanted to have, as they finished this year with a losing record. However, the good news is although for some of them, it’s the end of their basketball career at the middle school level, it will soon be just the start of their Lady Wildcat basketball journey at Tullahoma High School.

East in their win against West took initiative in making the Lady Bobcats uncomfortable. They threw a full-court press at them early and were in their face defensively if West got the ball past half-court. This pesky defense led to many turnovers which East capitalized on.

Eighth Grade guard Lady Panther, Gena Hickerson especially benefited from the aggression, scoring a game-high 18 points. She scored most of her points in transition as she was able to maneuver past defenders regularly with her handles and her speed. If the Lady Bobcats were able to slow her down and force her and East into a half-court set she was still able to execute. She broke down their half-court defense and often found teammates in open positions. One of those teammates that she found on regularity around the basket was East forward Ingrid Fultz.

Fultz finished the game with six points, and played a huge role on the defensive side for East, as she snagged rebounds over West players left and right.