Lady Hawks clip Beech, advance to region finals, sectional

Mar. 2—MT. JULIET — The firsts continued for Green Hill's girls Monday night when the Lady Hawks advanced to their first region final and sectional with a 43-33 win over Beech in the Region 5-4A semifinals at Mt. Juliet High School.

The Lady Buccaneers hit a couple of 3s to overtake an early Lady Hawk lead and a steal and layup by Riley Long put them up 11-8.

But Aubrey Blankenship hit back-to-back bombs to send Green Hill back in front and the Lady Hawks, though with never a big lead, maintained their pace and control of the contest the rest of the way to improve to 16-15.

"We just wanted to survive and advance," Green Hill coach Joseph Simmons said. "These seniors don't want their career to be over."

While Blankenship got Green Hill off to a good start with 10 points and strong finish with four for a total of 14, it was sophomore point guard Sullie Gerik who stepped up with 18, sinking 7 of 8 free throws. Cameron Bryan and Alyssa Potier each finished with four points and Savannah Kirby two. "Sullie Gerik had a great bounce-back game," Simmons said. "That's why she's our dog. She's our toughest player. She showed it tonight."

The Lady Hawks faced District 9 champion Cookeville last night for the championship. The winner will host a sectional at 7 p.m. Saturday while the loser goes to either Hillsboro or Brentwood.

"Win or lose (last night), we're one win away from the state tournament," Simmons said. "That's all you can ask for is to have a chance this time of year.

"We'll play Saturday night. I don't care where it is. But Green Hill will be suited up and give somebody a fight."

Bailey Ford led the Lady Bucs with 13 points, including six in the fourth quarter. Blankenship held Long to 11 after her eight first-period points (including a pair of 3s) as Beech finished a 20-12 campaign.

"I thought Aubrey's biggest contribution tonight was on the defensive end," Simmons said. "Long is a great player and she went toe to toe with her and made her work for everything."

Using a patient offense which passed up possible transition opportunities, the Lady Hawks led 18-14 at the first-quarter break, 22-19 at halftime and 31-24 going into the fourth.

"Unless it was wide open, we weren't going to take it," said Simmons, whose Lady Hawks lost to Beech 44-35 on the Hill in early January. "We wanted to make sure 100% we were going to get that basket. Otherwise, we needed to run that clock. The clock was our enemy at that time. We wanted to limit the possessions they got. Once you take time off the clock, their possessions get lower and it puts more pressure on them to make points every trip down, and our girls handled it well."