Mount Tabor holds

off Pioneers 73-51
By Steve Behr

WINSTON-SALEM — This was supposed to be somewhat of an easy victory for Mount Tabor's girls' basketball team. Just host, and then beat Watauga in the first round of the state 4-A playoffs and move on.

Mount Tabor did move on after beating Watauga 73-51 Tuesday night, but the victory did not come so easy.

Once Mount Tabor (24-1) built a double-digit lead, it was never really threatened.

Yet the Spartans, the Central Piedmont Conference champions, could never really leave Watauga (11-15) behind for good until late in the fourth quarter. The Pioneers, which needed a wildcard to make the playoffs after finishing sixth in the Northwestern 4-A Conference, were as close as 10 points with 6:14 left in the game, but Watauga’s offense ran out of steam and scored just three points the rest of the game.

“I’m proud of the effort,” Pioneers coach Klay Anderson said. “We got tremendous effort offensively and defensively and make no mistake about it, (Mount Tabor) is an excellent basketball team. Mount Tabor is a number one seed for a reason. They’ve got a solid perimeter game and a solid post game, but my girls gave tremendous effort. We could have laid down and died, so to speak, when we got down 15 or 20. But we fought back and we put a little doubt in their minds.”

The Pioneers fell behind 56-34, but Watauga scored the final nine points of the third quarter to trail 56-43 going into the fourth quarter. After Mount Tabor scored the first basket of the fourth, the Pioneers rallied with a 5-0 mini-blitz to complete their 14-2 run and climb to within 58-48. Nicole Tesh sparked the run with an inside basket and Sarah Miller hit a pair of foul shots, the second coming with 6:14 left in the game.

Defense played a key role in the run. Watauga held Mount Tabor to four missed shots and a turnover.

“We did it on the defensive end,” Anderson said. “We started getting steals and we kept attacking the basket and going to the line. Good defense makes offense easy any day.”

However, the Spartans regrouped. Mostly behind the foul shooting of point guard Shay Jones, Mount Tabor went on an 8-0 run of its own and pulled away from the Pioneers.

Jones was 6-for-8 from the foul line in the fourth quarter, and Watauga struggled with its shooting and with turnovers the rest of the quarter.

Jones led all scorers with 20 points, making 10-of-13 from the foul line. Foul shooting played a big role for both teams as Mount Tabor hit 28-of-35 from the line, while Watauga made 24-of-34 free throws.

Christina Rees led the Pioneers with 11 points, while Nicole Tesh and Katherine Mayhew each scored nine. Kayla Kincaid added seven.

It didn’t last long, but Watauga took a 2-0 lead on a Mayhew inside basket. The Spartans answered with a 9-0 run and never looked back, even though Watauga showed some signs of life in the first half.

Watauga fell behind by double digits in the first quarter, mostly since Mount Tabor hit eight of its first 10 shots and forced six Watauga first-quarter turnovers. The Pioneers went over four minutes between scoring their first and second baskets from the field, missing four shots and turning the ball over three times during that stretch.

Yet the Pioneers battled back to within nine points (22-13) by the end of the first quarter, and to within seven at the start of the second. A Tesh basket at the start of the second quarter pulled Watauga to within 22-15.

But the Spartans scored the next eight points and took a 30-15 lead. Watauga battled back, sparked by back-to-back baskets by Mayhew, and closed the gap to 30-21.

The Spartans went on a 9-0 run to take a 39-21 advantage that Watauga sliced to 43-28 by halftime.

Anderson gave credit to playing in the NWC for getting his team ready. Watauga finished sixth in a league, that saw Freedom, McDowell, East Burke and South Caldwell win playoff games. A.C. Reynolds was the only other NWC team that lost Tuesday.

“We might have only won two games in our league, but I’ll tell you what, we go in and battle every night and that makes you better,” Anderson said. “We take on a Mount Tabor six times a year when you talk about A.C. Reynolds, Freedom and McDowell. To me, any of those three can come here and go toe-to-toe with Mount Tabor.”

Mount Tabor 73, Watauga 51
Watauga (11-16)
Kincaid 1 5-8 7, Butler 1 4-4 6, Dunnigan 1 0-0 2, Tesh 3 3-7 9, Mayhew 3 3-5 9, Corbin 1 0-0 2, Miller 0 5-6 5, Rees 3 4-4 11, McKinney 0 0-0 0, Woods 0 0-0 0, Wright 0 0-0 0, Gilliam 0 0-0 0, Jones 0 0-0 0, Alford 0 0-0 0. Totals 13 24-34 51.
Mount Tabor (24-1)
Jones 4 10-13 20, Tate 3 0-0 9, Calicott 2 5-6 9, Lane 2 2-2 6, Crawford 1 3-4 5, Ogelsby 4 5-6 13, Penley 4 3-4 11, Mitchell 0 0-0 0, Mulheron 0 0-0 0, Ingram 0 0-0 0, Doran 0 0-0 0. Totals 20 18-35 73.
Watauga 13 15 15 8 — 51
Mount Tabor 22 21 13 17 — 73
3-point goals—Watauga 1 (Rees), Mount Tabor 5 (Tate 3, Jones 2). Turnovers—Watauga 18, Mount Tabor 25. Total fouls—Watauga 22, Mount Tabor 20. Fouled out—None. Technical fouls—None.