March Madness came a day early for the Heritage Christian Lady Warriors, as the fifth-seed Lady Warriors upset North Hardin on Thursday night via Kinley Deason’s buzzer-beating three. Heading into Saturday morning’s outing, though, Heritage Christian would face yet another grueling test.
Top-seeded Oak Ridge and Heritage Christian tipped off the first game of the KCAA semi finals, with both teams searching for their bid to the title game.
Last season, the Lady Warriors knocked off Oak Ridge in that fashion. However, this season would bring an unfortunate turn of events for Heritage Christian.
A 14-4 first quarter in favor of Oak Ridge wasn’t the start Heritage Christian was looking for, especially considering Oak Ridge forward Gracie Clark had 11 of those points.
However, the Lady Warriors posted a 11-9 second quarter that was capped off by senior Chelsea Dortch swishing a buzzer-beating three to trail by just eight (23-15) at halftime.
Dortch nailed another three to close out the third quarter, but the Lady Warriors still found themselves trailing by nine (29-20) heading into the final period.
Heritage Christian matched Oak Ridge point for point in the final period, but came up short of victory in a 33-24 loss.
In her final game as a Lady Warrior, Dortch finished with 10 points. Capping off her sophomore campaign, Deason was close behind Dortch with six points.
For Oak Ridge, the story was Clark as she finished the game with a total of 25 of the team’s 33 points.
Heritage Christian is expected to return a strong nucleus of young talent, but the Lady Warriors will also graduate seniors Dortch and Kayley Wadlington.