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MANCHESTER — Mt. Juliet’s girls were losing to host Coffee County by 23 points during the first-quarter break when Lady Bear legends Alysha Clark and Christian Gibson arrived at Joe Frank Patch Memorial Gym.
Lady Bear coach Jeremy Hawks asked Clark, a 15-year professional player, if she would like a uniform. Clark laughed as she and Gibson walked up the bleachers.
Without the 2005 Miss Basketball at any age, Mt. Juliet had little chance against the undefeated Lady Raiders, who rolled into their second state tournament in the last three seasons with an 84-44 sectional win last Saturday night.
It would take a high school basketball version of Madden to see how the current Lady Raiders would compare with the ’05 Lady Bears. But the ’25 version isn’t quite ready for prime time, but they’re much closer than most would have thought even just a few weeks ago.
With Coffee County connecting on 3-pointers like they were layups (13 made triples in all) and 6-foot-5 center Channah Gannon an unmovable force in the post, the Lady Raiders rolled to a 28-5 first-quarter lead and 50-19 at halftime.
The Lady Raiders still outscored Mt. Juliet in the second half, but the Lady Bears looked much more confident as they trailed 65-32 going into the fourth as Coffee County won for the 45th straight time in what the locals call “The Patch.”
Gannon muscled in 21 points while Olivia Vinson sank six triples on her way to 20 and Jules Ferrell fired in four treys for most of her 18. Natalie Barnes threw in 13 as the No. 2-ranked Lady Raiders, coached by former Lebanon boys’ assistant Joe Pat Cope, punched their ticket to the state with a 34-0 record, only to find top-ranked Bradley Central waiting in tonight’s final game at Middle Tennessee State’s Murphy Center.
“They got a 6-5 D-I post player,” Hawks said. “They got a 6-1 D-I shooter who didn’t miss a shot the first half. I thought we defended well against the big girl early. The problem is Vinson was 5-for-5 and the rest of the team combined was 9-for-10.
“It was a ‘pick your poison’ type of game. They hurt us.”
The pairings were predetermined by TSSAA months ago. In a different year, it could have been Lebanon and Mt. Juliet meeting in this state quarterfinal. But the Lady Bears and Devilettes will have to wait for the future when, when they’re reunited in the same district next year, they can theoretically meet in the state championship game.
Aaliyah Holman hit three triples to lead the Lady Bears with 16 points while Claire Emery tossed in two 3s on her way to 10. Addy Osborne finished with five points, Sophia McGresham and Makayla Hopson four each, McClaine Ringenberg a 3 and Lilly Bugg two as Mt. Juliet finished a renaissance 18-13 season. The best part of these names is few, if any, of them are seniors.
“We’re returning a lot so hopefully this is year one for us,” said Hawks at the conclusion of his first season with the Lady Bears, who won the District 12-4A tournament championship a few weeks ago. “We far exceeded any expectations I think anybody had. I got a great group of girls. I got great freshmen with Addy and Aaliyah Holman… Claire Emery, only a junior, was outstanding. She was the one who guarded the big girl tonight and she basically did everything I asked and more. I’ve got everybody returning next year so I’m excited and looking forward to getting started in the summer.”
Hawks said the atmosphere was great and beneficial to his team.
“I loved the crowd,” he said. “A lot of energy from the student section. This is the type of gym and place you want to be in at the end of the year. It was a good experience for us. Hopefully, we’ll look to get back to this spot next year and maybe go a little further.
“Expectations for most were low. We had high expectations and now going forward expectations are going to be high. But as I told the girls ‘pressure is a privilege’. It’s going to be higher standard now.”
