Red Bay rally falls short

HANCEVILLE – Tanner held a 15-point lead early in the fourth quarter before Red Bay rallied to cut the deficit to six points in the final minute, but the Lady Tigers could not maintain the momentum and, once again, saw their season end in the Northwest Regional Tournament with a 59-48 loss.

Tanner (30-3) was able to use its size advantage to pull away in the second quarter by out rebounding Red Bay and outscoring the Lady Tigers 15-6.

“They had 19 rebounds to our six in the first half,” Red Bay coach Donnie Roberts said. “We also missed shots we shouldn’t have.”

Red Bay (26-5) was 4-of-17 shooting in the first half and 0-for-4 on 3-point attempts. The Lady Tigers’ woes from behind the perimeter continued in the second half, leaving Red Bay 0-for-10 from 3-point range during the game.

“We work for the zone and they slipped into a little,” Roberts said. “But when we missed those easy shots in the first half, we altered our shots when we shouldn’t have.”

Red Bay wanted to improve its rebounding in the second half, but Jade Ezzell fouled out early in the fourth quarter, which allowed Tanner to use its size advantage to dominate the boards. Tanner finished the game with 39 total rebounds while the Lady Tigers managed only 22 rebounds.

Hannah Sharp scored 11 of her game-high 20 points in the final four minutes of the fourth quarter to spark the Red Bay rally, but the Lady Tigers had three starters foul out in the fourth, which made the comeback hard to maintain.

Whitney Sharp scored 11 points for Red Bay before fouling out in the closing minutes. Both Sharp sisters were named to the All-Tournament Team.

Also scoring for Red Bay were Casey Spark (9), Ezzell (3), Lauren Pacetti (2), Leah Fuller (2) and Lexy Lindsey (1).

Sierra Sales led Tanner with 19 points and 13 rebounds.