Mt. Juliet’s Karly Dyer (middle) elevates for a shot over two Wilson Central defenders during the first half of Tuesday’s battle of District 9-AAA unbeatens at Mt. Juliet High School.
Mt. Juliet’s Tavie Bell elevates for a first-half layup over the outstretched arms of Wilson Central’s Taylor Tucker during Tuesday’s matchup of District 9-AAA unbeatens at Mt. Juliet High School.
MT. JULIET — The unbeaten Wilson Central girls basketball team notched its 19th win of the season Tuesday night.
The Lady Wildcats’ 46-31 triumph at District 9-AAA rival Mt. Juliet held a little more significance than their previous 18, though.
“I think this is the first time we’ve won here in five or six years, so it’s big for us,” Wilson Central junior Addison Byrd said. It was the Region 5-AAA final in 2011 since the Lady Wildcats had defeated their rivals.
“It’s a special win,” Lady Wildcats coach John Wild added. “I think any time you beat a program like (Mt. Juliet coach Chris Fryer’s) it means something. The job he’s done over here, year after year, I think he’s one of the best in the business.”
Senior guard Kendall Spray scored the first 14 points for visiting Wilson Central (19-0, 7-0 9-AAA), helping her team out to a five-point lead early in the second quarter.
And while Mt. Juliet rallied late in the first half, eventually taking a 17-16 advantage on Tavie Bell’s second-quarter layup — the Lady Bears’ only lead of the game — it was all undone by a dominant second-quarter effort from the visiting Lady Wildcats.
“We started boxing out and playing better defense on their posts,” added Byrd, one of two Lady Wildcats to score in double figures. “That definitely got it going for us. (At halftime we talked about) just keep going hard, play a little smarter, make good passes and then keep it out of the high post. That’s what they were trying to go on offense.”
Wilson Central’s Kendall Spray (21) cuts around teammate Nathalie Ventura’s screen on Mt. Juliet’s Julia Maki (20) during the first half of Tuesday’s battle of District 9-AAA unbeatens at Mt. Juliet High School.
Those changes made a quick difference in the second half as Wilson Central got things under way by stringing together eight unanswered and eventually outscored host Mt. Juliet 17-4 in the lopsided third quarter.
Bell, a 5-foot-10 post, finished with a team-leading 14 points for Mt. Juliet (11-5, 6-1). However, she managed just two baskets through the final 16 minutes.
“When they get the ball in the middle of the floor in the elbow area, they’re really, really good,” Wild said. “I thought even though it went there some in the third quarter, we had an extra defender in the lane coming off to help.”
Spray, one of the Midstate’s leading scorer (27.2 points per game), finished with a game-high 26 points, including four makes from beyond the arc to increase her season total to 107 — 32 shy of last season’s mark in which she set the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association record for 3-pointers in a season.
“Kendall Spray shooting the ball seemed to be the difference to me,” Fryer said. “The first half was a pretty good basketball game, but they just had too much firepower in the second half and we just couldn’t sustain our play from the first half.
“That’s the way it goes and you’ve got to tip your hat to them; they’ve got a good basketball team.”
Reach Michael Murphy at 615-259-8262 and on Twitter @Murph_TNsports.