BY BRITTNI MCCOY
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN
WARFIELD — Martin County Middle School Lady Cards fired on all cylinders on eighth-grade night Thursday against Dorton. The girls took an early lead and never looked back with a 37-21 victory.
All five starters hit the books in a well-balanced scoring effort.
Desirae Gullett and Ava Farnham came out ready to play on their final night of basketball. The pair nailed three trifectas in the first quarter and six free throws between them to take a 15-8 lead.
The Cards put on a press that Dorton could not handle. Alyssa Maynard and Jane Smith scored off steals in the second quarter to give Martin County a 19-10 lead at the half.
“We shared the ball and played great defense,” said Maynard.
Her teammate Chloe Jude agreed.
“We did a good job at making people mad on the defensive end,” Jude said.
Annaleigh Davis kept the hot shooting going. She scored six points from the floor in transition. Maynard and Farnham poured in four more points each.
“It felt good getting the win tonight,” Farnham said. “I had four fouls, but besides that, we did amazing as a team.”
Smith and Maynard added another two points apiece in the fourth quarter.
“We made a lot of shots,” Smith said. “I’ll miss everything about this season, including hanging out with the team.”
Gullett put one more on the board from the charity stripe. She made good use of her five fouls for the night and received a standing ovation for the final walk-off of the season.
Gullett finished in double figures with 11 points, including two 3-pointers, Farnham and Maynard chalked up eight points each, Davis recorded six and Smith pitched in four points.
Cheyanne Spaulding had an emotional night playing her last MCMS game.
“I’ll miss the girls and how we get together in practice,” Spaulding said.
Her teammate Aaliyah Scott said she would “miss everyone on the team.”
Boo Newsome concluded her first season as the Martin County Middle School head coach.
“What a great way to end our season at home. We sent our eighth graders off as winners to the high school,” Newsome said. “They preserved. We didn’t have a lot of time with them, but we had a lot of growth. Tonight was our swan song. We clicked on everything. We’ve worked on free throws this week. It’s been our weakness, but we hit them tonight. We played as a team and we were aggressive.”
Assistant coach Alison Scott chimed in.
“These girls have improved leaps and bounds from the beginning to now,” Scott said. “It’s a fun group to watch and they’re good girls on and off the court. We couldn’t ask for better.”
The team loses six eighth-graders, but Coach Newsome said, “We have a lot of potential for next year and we’ll keep growing.”
Lexi Cline led the B-team with four points in their game, Bri Muncy added three, Caylee and Chloe Moore pitched in two each and Bailee Scott hit a free throw.