After a slow start in the first four minutes of Monday’s District 14 AAA girls’ championship game, the Lady Chargers broke a 2-2 tie with a 14-2 run and never looked back in their wire-to-wire 50-28 win over Munford.
It was Covington’s fourth straight district title. The Lady Chargers have not lost a district game since 2018.
Turnovers played a major role in the CHS victory. Munford had 30, with 20 being steals. Covington had 10, but only one in each of the first three periods while they built a lead.
Cor’Tayza Flowers, the regular season district MVP, led all scorers with 14 points. Tournament MVP NaKya Gilliam scored 10 and ShaNiah Williams contributed nine. Shea Gooden had 11 to lead the Lady Cougars and Brezia Cooper scored eight.
Local players named to the All-District team were Brighton’s Gus Johnson, Abby Haun of Munford, Gooden, Cooper, Kendall Narcisse, Shamya Butler, Williams and Alana Whiten.
Harlee Windsor, Gooden and Cooper were named to the All-Tournament team along with Kayla Pitts, MaLiyah Gilliam and Flowers. The All-Academic Team members (a 3.0 GPA or better) were ShaNiah Williams, NaKya Gilliam and Audrey Glass from CHS.
Covington will host Dyersburg and Munford hosts Obion County Central Friday at 7 p.m. in in the region quarterfinals. Winners move on to the region semifinals Monday at Ripley.
In other district tournament action:
• Several things stood out in the Covington Chargers’ 53-38 14-AAA semifinal loss to the Haywood Tomcats Saturday night in Covington.
The Tomcats “in your face” man-to-man switching defense against the CHS guards, plus their length on the back line caused the Chargers to have to shoot from long range most of the night. The makes were three. The misses were many.
Haywood jumped out to a 6-1 lead before CHS made a basket from the floor and led wire-to-wire.
Covington bounced back Tuesday night with a 59-48 consolation game win vs. Munford. Covington travels to Crockett County Saturday for a do-or-die region quarterfinal. Munford will attempt to keep its season alive Saturday with a trip to Dyer County.
There were no gaudy scoring numbers Saturday vs. Haywood. Haywood’s junior guard Tylon Chatman led the way with 14. Taquarius Douglas added 10. No Covington player reached double figures. Jordan Clemons and Holden Warmath tied for team=-high honors with nine points each.
In the second semifinal, the Munford Cougars encountered much of the same problems as Covington. Ripley’s speed and big presence inside kept the Cougars at bay in their 53-37 loss to the Tigers.
The Tigers led all the way. Munford kept it close, trailing by six after one period and by five at the half. Ripley led 39-31 to start the fourth. A 7-0 run to open the quarter pushed the Ripley lead to 15 and the Cougars did not recover.
Ripley’s Antonio Gauze did the most damage with a game-high 21 points. Octavius Davis scored 14 with the combined pair almost eclipsing the Cougars team total. No Cougar reached double figures. D’Camron Hayes was best with eight and Jordan Bell scored seven.
• Covington ran out to a 16-0 lead in the first period in the district semifinals Friday and cruised to a 63-20 win over Haywood. The defense swarmed in a full court press that resulted in 12 turnovers in the first period. Haywood did not get the ball across the half court line until the 3:47 mark of the period.
Cor’Tayza Flowers’ 19 points was the game high score. Alana Whiten had 17, including 5 made 3-pointers in the second half.
The second semi-final featured the Munford Lady Cougars and the Ripley Lady Tigers.
Both teams struggled handling the ball and had even more trouble finding the basket. Ripley led 9-6 at the end of the first period. Munford was up 14-12 at the break. The Lady Cougars found the range late and used an 8-2 run to win 34-29.
Brezia Cooper topped Munford with 10 and Harlee Windsor and Sha Gooden scored nine a piece.
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