Back To Back: Lady Generals Win Conference Tourney for Second Year in a Row

From the opening tip, the Lady Generals defense swarmed and smothered the Lady Cougars on all 84 feet of the court, forcing tips and turnovers and racking up steals and blocks.  Harding was equally dominant on offense, despite not shooting particularly well, and built a 12-4 first quarter lead thanks to a relentless effort on the offensive boards.  In the second quarter, the Lady Generals faced the all-too-familiar foe of foul trouble.  No matter - reserves Lily Wilmoth, Lydia Beachum, Anna Perrone and Elizabeth Perrone helped hold Clarksville Academy to only two made free-throws and extend the top seed's lead to 21-6 at the half.  Despite missing 9 out of 12 free-throws in the quarter, Harding tallied another 12 points in the third and held the Lady Cougars to only two made free-throws until all conference guard Ashley Roberts banked in a prayerful three-pointer in the final seconds of the quarter to cut the lead to 33-11.  The fourth quarter saw every Harding reserve touch the ball and take a shot while facing off against most of the Lady Cougars' starters.  The Lady Generals were led in scoring by all conference forward Maggie Cannata with 12 points, two-time all conference guard Abby Andrews with 9 points, and Anna Perrone with 5 points.  Three players scored 3 points: Ellie Frist, Teagan McEver - who had an outstanding and inspired fourth quarter - and Cece Bayliff - who played her most aggressive and complete game of the year.  Lydia Beachum scored 2 points and all conference honorable mention guard Ellie Slagle - who struggled from the field but had an outstanding day defensively and handling the ball - added one made free-throw to round out the scoring.  With the win, Harding (15-1) won all but one of their conference and provisional conference games by 11 points or more while scoring at least 29 points, the lone outlier being a 25-20 win over Merrol Hyde in early December.  Harding held opponents to 12 points or less in 7 of 16 games including games with opponent outputs of 8, 5 and 4 points.  Offensively, Harding scored 33 or more points in 12 out of 16 games, twice scoring 47 points.  An outstanding group of 9 eighth graders led the way in this near perfect season and will pass the torch to a group of seventh graders who will look to three-peat as conference champs in 2015-2016.