Game 10 – Cocke County 60, Steward 46

Cocke County faced their second tough challenge in a row in the Ladies Classic and again came out on top, beating Steward School from Virginia 60-46 Wednesday.

The Lady Red from Newport seemed in control the entire way, but it took a fourth quarter blitz for them to turn away the Lady Spartans from Richmond.

After building a 13-point advantage during the third period, Cocke County saw the Spartans make a late run in the period to outscore the Red 9-0 in the final two minutes to close to 39-35 starting the final period.

A bucket by Lilly Thoman to start the fourth made it a two point game at 39-37. Adison McNealy’s 3-point goal from the deep corner got Cocke County out of their slide to build a 42-37 lead. That seemed to be the spark CCHS needed as they went on a 10-2 run in a three minute span to gain some breathing room and assure themselves of a spot in the tourney quarterfinals on Thursday.

McNealy had a big game with 19 points to lead the winners. Hallie Kitchen scored 14 and dished out seven assists.

Steward (2-6) got 16 points from Ava Johnson and 10 from Sania Green. Green, one of the country’s top sophomore college prospects, got only 16:48 of playing time in the game as she got into early foul difficulties. Hali Harris got a game-best 11 rebounds, but the Spartans only shot 28 percent from the field in the game (13-47).

The Lady Red improve to 11-5 on the year.

STEWARD (46): West 1-2 3-4 5, Thoman 2-6 1-2 5, Saunders 0-5 0-2 0, Martin 2-7 1-2 7, Harris 0-6 2-2 2, Kavanaugh 0-0 1-2 1, Ava Johnson 6-12 4-4 16, Sanai Green 2-9 6-8 10. TOTALS: 13-47 18-26 46.

COCKE COUNTY (60): Adisen McNealy 5-10 6-8 19, Clevenger 3-6 0-3 6, Carter 1-2 0-0 3, Niethammer 0-0 2-2 2, Hallie Kitchen 3-9 5-6 14, Reed 2-4 4-5 8, Carmichael 2-8 2-5 6, Reese 0-1 0-0 0, Moore 1-2 0-0 2. TOTALS: 17-42 19-29 60.

3-Point Goals: SC—2 (Martin 2). CC—7 (McNealy 3, Kitchen 3, Carter).