MARYVILLE – For the second year in a row, Maryville is moving on to the Collegiate Conference of the South Tournament semifinals, this time after defeating Huntingdon 61-50 here at the Cooper Athletic Center Tuesday night.
Maryville rode strong performances from
Courtney Carruthers and
Ella Haney to take down the Hawks after trailing early in the contest.
"They both had really good games," Maryville head coach
Darrin Travillian said. "Carruthers had 16 of our 28 points in the first half. She's a glue kid and somebody who makes great plays for us."
"Haney is a clutch player for us. She's hit a really good stride here in the second semester and has been a big piece for us."
Carruthers led the Scots with 24 points, 11 of which came in the second quarter, where she was 3-of-4 from beyond the arc. The senior has now scored 20 or more points in three straight after coming off 26 and 27-point performances against Covenant and Piedmont to close out the regular season.
Haney recorded her second double-double of the season in the contest, scoring 15 points while grabbing a team-high 12 rebounds.
The sophomore was one of three Scots to grab 10-plus boards in the contest, as Oliva Cathers and
Emma Huskey grabbed 11 and 10 respectively. Maryville outrebounded the Hawks 49-33, with most of the deficit coming from a 20-7 margin in offensive rebounds.
Maryville trailed early in the contest, falling behind 6-5 with 6:17 in the first quarter and not taking the lead back until 6:02 in the second. While the Scots trailed for a full 10 minutes, Huntingdon's largest lead of the game was just seven points at 12-5 with 2:05 remaining in the first.
MC went on an 8-2 run to close out the first and trailed by just one heading into the next quarter. The two squads battled back and forth over the next four minutes of play, with Maryville finally taking the lead at 19-18 with a
Chloe Roark layup at 6:02 remaining.
The Hawks battled hard but just couldn't keep up as Carruthers drained three straight 3-pointers, including one from way beyond the arc as time expired in the first half. MC outscored Huntingdon 15-10 in the second quarter as Maryville took a 28-24 lead into halftime.
The third quarter was all MC as the Scots kicked off the period with a 13-3 run across the first eight minutes of play. The Scots were 5-of-11 (45.5%) from the floor and 7-of-8 (87.5%) from the free-throw line during the quarter while holding Huntingdon to 2-of-11 from the field.
"Everybody bought in," Travillian said. "We had some really good defensive minutes.
Olivia Cathers played in the post a lot in the second half, which is something she just started doing in the last month"
"We fouled a lot in the first half, second half we didn't foul nearly as much. We made them have to make a few more shots and not just give up free throws"
Huntingdon was able to outscore Maryville 20-16 in the fourth quarter, but the damage was already done as the Scots walked away with a 61-50 final score and advanced to the semifinal round of the CCS Tournament.
"I've been saying this since November," Travillian said. "We're really young. We're really young but we are getting better. I love the way we've been playing. Since finals, we've really turned a corner, and we've been playing a lot better and have been more competitive."
"We battled today," Travillian said. "We competed and we made winning plays. You hold a team to 50 points you should win, and we did that job today."
Maryville takes on No. 1 seeded Berea Friday night. Tipoff is scheduled for 5 p.m.
