Girls basketball: Lady Elephants earn bye in 8-AAA tourney

GAINESVILLE -- Gainesville claimed the No. 2 seed from Region 8B-AAA by doing the little things better than Johnson on Thursday night.

The Lady Red Elephants outrebounded the Lady Knights, hit their first 10 free throws, and held Johnson to just one field goal in the first nine minutes of the game in taking a 38-32 win at the Gainesville gym.

Gainesville (14-11, 9-3 Region 8B-AAA) never trailed and the game was tied just once, 2-2, before the Lady Elephants used 10-2 run in the first half to take control of the game. They held a huge rebounding edge (37-15) for the game and held Johnson to no 3-pointers for the game. They also hit 22-of-38 free throws for the game.

Gainesville now will need to win just one game to advance to state. Lady Red Elephants coach Manson Hill, whose team has won four of five coming down the stretch, said he expects a battle no matter who they play, but feels they are playing their best at the right time of the season.

"I hope we're peaking at the right time," Hill said. "This is the first time we've had our whole team together in a while so that was big for us. The rebounding was big. We've felt all along that we could be the best rebounding team in the area and now we're starting to show that we can control the boards."

The game was crucial for both teams, but for Johnson it meant a drop to the No. 4 seed and a possible showdown with 8A-AAA subregion winner and Class AAA eighth-ranked Chestatee in the quarterfinals to get into the state tournament. But the Lady Knights (14-11, 8-4) first will have to get past a second round match-up against White County.

The Lady Knights also were hampered the entire game as leading scorer and rebounder Caitlin Sloan was in foul trouble from the beginning. The senior picked up two fouls in the first 2:40 of the game and her third early in the second quarter. She picked up her fourth early in the third quarter and finished with just one basket and three rebounds.

"We have a tough road ahead," Johnson coach Kory Bays said. "We just couldn't score and then to not have Caitlin for most of the game really hurt. We just dug ourselves a huge hole and couldn't get out of it."

Gainesville took advantage of Sloan's absence running out to a 20-11 halftime lead. The Lady Elephants built a 23-13 lead midway through the third quarter and led 33-23 midway through the fourth quarter.

But Johnson did not quit. The Lady Knights, behind a scrappy defense that forced three straight Gainesville turnovers, managed to pull within three points twice in the final minute, the last at 35-32 with 30 seconds left.

But Chelsey Young and Rebecca Webster hit 3-of-4 free throws to seal the victory.

Webster had a huge game with 16 points and 11 rebounds for Gainesville. Kate Callahan had 10 points and seven rebounds, and Young finished with three points, three steals, and eight rebounds from the point guard position for the Lady Elephants.

Lyndsey Pethel led Johnson with 11 points and four rebounds. Ryleigh Shannon added eight points while Sloan finished with just two points, her lowest output of the season.