By Mike Hutchens, UC Schools Communications Director
Union City, Tenn.–Union City’s gallant upset bid came up just short.
The Lady Tornadoes pushed District 11 champion East Hickman to the final buzzer before falling 53-51 in the Region 6-2A quarterfinals Friday night.
Amari Bonds put on another dazzling individual performance with a spectacular 32-point effort, and UC made 19-of-19 from the free-throw line to push EH to the limit on their homecourt.
But the Lady Eagles (19-7) made the timeliest plays – including buckets in the last minute of each of the first three quarters – to ultimately hold off the Purple and Gold, which finished the year at 15-12.
“Just a few little plays that were huge when you look back it,” Union City head coach Antawn Coby said afterward. “They capitalized when they had the opportunities. They made big shots at critical times.
“I thought we played well overall. For a while in the first half, they won the ‘extra’ plays. Then we decided we wanted to make them, and we did.”
Bonds was essentially unstoppable, hitting five 2-pointers, four times from 3-point range, and all eight of her foul shots. She had 18 of her game-high point total in the first half and gave the Lady Tornadoes their first lead in the opening period with the first of her three treys in the stanza.
UC trailed by as many as eight points in the second stanza but stayed within striking distance by going a perfect 10-for-10 from the charity stripe in the opening half. Marlee Theobald’s old-fashioned 3-point play got the Twisters within 23-21, and two free throws by Kia German had the Purple and Gold within 31-27 before Ki-Lita Sowell’s layup beat the intermission horn and made it a six-point difference in favor of the home team.
The third segment was tightly played with the Lady Tornadoes getting within a deuce (39-37) with under two minutes showing. But Taylor Holt knocked down one of East-Hickman’s eight 3-pointers at the 40-second mark to stretch the gap to 42-37 at the buzzer.
Twice UC crept to within three points down the stretch before the Lady Eagles pushed the gap to 51-43 with 2:59 to go.
The Twisters wouldn’t go away, however, first getting within three points with 48 seconds showing, then within the final margin when Bonds tossed in an off-balanced 3-pointer from the top of the key with 3.6 on the clock.
After a timeout, Union City forced a loose-ball scramble in front of its own bucket, but the final buzzer went off before possession was claimed.
“We’d played teams similar to them, and I thought that helped us to have a very good game plan,” Coby added.
“I thought we had a ton of growth this season. We came into the year with just two seniors, only one of whom had played very much. We have experience now. We can no longer use the excuse of inexperience moving forward into next season.”
The contest was the last in a UCHS basketball uniform for both German and Sophie Theobald – each of whom went 4-of-4 from the foul line in Friday’s game.