By Ken Lay
It’s been a season filled with injuries for the Christian Academy of Knoxville girls basketball team.
But the Lady Warriors are finally fully healthy, and they recently began a postseason run that they hope will land them a spot in the Division II-A State Tournament at F&M Bank Arena in Clarksville during the first week of March.
CAK, the top seed in the Division II-A East Region District 1 Tournament, won its semifinal game, toppling Concord Christian School, 67-45, Thursday night in the Dr. Ron Stewart Gymnasium at Grace Christian Academy.
The Lady Warriors (23-4) clinched the No. 1 seed of the district tournament by winning 11 of their 12 league games.
“We’ve been bitten by the injury bug pretty much all year,” CAK coach Abby Williams said. “It’s nice to have everybody back and have all nine of our girls play tonight.”
The Lady Warriors got off to a fast start against the Lady Lions (16-12) as they opened a 30-12 lead in the first quarter.
“We came out and started the game, and we were really hot,’ Williams said. “And then in the second quarter, we went cold, and we went away from what we were doing well.”
During the Lady Warriors’ blistering opening frame, Lexi Hammock scored 12 points as she converted six field goals. She would finish the contest with 14 points, but gave CAK a huge lift, according to Williams.
“It was great to have Lexi back,” Williams said.
During their icy streak in the second stanza, the Lady Warriors managed just five points and hit just two shots from the floor, including one from behind the 3-point arc. Despite the offensive power outage that plagued CAK during the second stanza, the defense remained stingy, surrendering just nine points over that eight-minute stretch.
But Williams was far from pleased with her squad’s showing in the second quarter.
“I gave them a little pep talk at halftime, and we came out and played better in the second half,” she said.
The Lady Warriors had three players post double figures in the scoring column. In addition to getting 14 points from Hammock, CAK received a game-high 18 points from eighth grader Karlie Gray. Colie Thompson also chipped in with 14 points, helping her team notch its victory.
Emory Thomas led the Lady Lions with 15 points.
CAK advanced to Saturday’s district tournament championship game, where they played tournament host GCA. Results were not available at press time. The Lady Rams edged The King’s Academy, 54-51, in Thursday’s other tournament semifinal.
