By Steve Williams
It’s been a memorable basketball season for Carter Middle School.
“This will be the first Carter girls championship in the history of the school,” said Head Coach Dalton Freels after his team defeated host Gibbs 36-26 last Wednesday night.
Callie Trull has started since the sixth grade and Paisley Leach joined her on this season’s All-County tournament team.
“As sixth graders when they came up, we didn’t have a really good team,” recalled Coach Freels. “We got put out right before the championship. I told them hang on, we’ll be back and then last year we came back and won the silver ball and got second place, and I said hang on we’ll be back.
“As eighth graders, I told them to keep fighting and put the hard work in and those are the two, Callie No. 11 and Paisley No. 2, they’re the two that really carried this team and are very dominant when it comes to practice and showing up and pushing their girls.”
The only blemish on Carter’s season record is a loss to Rush Strong in a pre-season Tip Off.
“If you count it you count it, if you don’t you don’t. Our fans have been going around and saying ‘an undefeated season,’” laughed Coach Freels. “I’m not counting it at the moment.”
Carter was 12-0 in the county including their run to the Knox County AA title and overall 24-0.
“My girls get a lot of energy, but I think that us being in pretty good shape has been a difference maker for the entire season,” said Freels. “Teams that have played us were kind of gassed in the third and fourth quarters. We’ve had really big third quarters all season long. I felt right there at the end we were a little bit quicker than Gibbs was. I think that was a big deal.”
The county title game reflected Carter’s dominant third quarters, as the Green and White pulled away after trailing 12-11 at halftime. Trull scored the first three points of the third quarter and six points in all in the quarter. Her sidekick, Leach, added two points at the foul line and a 3-pointer from the right wing with less than two seconds in the third quarter to give her team a four-point lead (22-18).
Trull wasted no time at the start of the fourth quarter, putting in a rebound shot and then stealing the ball and racing for a layup. Callie also made two free throws and a bank shot to give her team a 10-point cushion (34-24) with less than two minutes to go.
Trull finished with 14 points in the second half and a total of 19 points. Leach chipped in eight points, including two 3-pointers. Samantha Burnett added six points.
Caroline Howard and Emersyn Phillips led Gibbs with 10 and nine points, respectively.
Carter and Gibbs were scheduled to play in the Sectional Saturday at Cherokee High School in Rogersville.
