Webb School of Knoxville’s basketball teams fended off a couple of upset bids Thursday night in rivalry games at Catholic.
Sophomore guard Cailyn Taylor scored 20 points as the Lady Spartans rolled to a 57-40 victory, snapping a six-game losing streak in the series against Catholic.
In Thursday’s second game, 6-7 junior forward Alex Leeth had the team-high 17 points and the Spartans posted a 61-54 victory, their sixth straight in the series against Catholic.
Webb’s girls are ranked No. 1 in the state by the Tennessee Sports Writers Association and the boys are ranked No. 2 in the state.
Here’s how Webb pulled off the doubleheader sweep:
Girls’ game: Webb 57, Catholic 40
The Webb School of Knoxville Lady Spartans (Photo by Danny Parker/ 5Star Preps)
The Lady Spartans (19-3, 3-0 in Division II-AA East Region) got their first win over Catholic since Dec. 22, 2022, despite junior guard and Clemson commitment Meeyah Green being held to four points.
“Meeyah Green does so many of the little things for us,” Webb coach Greg Hernandez said. “She does so much to get everybody else involved. I could easily turn over the keys to her and say, ‘Go have fun, go score whatever,’ but she’s so bought into the team aspect and us being successful as a team that by her setting that tone it allows everybody else to fill their roles.”
Cailyn Taylor, who was 2 of 4 from 3-point range, had 15 points in the second half. She’s averaging about 8.5 points per game.
“She’s been a little up and down throughout the year, but she’s a good player,” Hernandez said of Taylor. “I’m lucky. I’ve got a lot of good players, young players.
“Everybody kind of takes their turns, because we share the wealth so well. But tonight, when we needed her, (Taylor) made some really big plays. She was under control. She was locked in from the get-go. She played defense, she rebounded. Offensively, she did what she needed to. I’m super proud of her. She’s been really playing well the last couple of weeks.”
Freshman post Kyndall Mays had 16 points and six rebounds and freshman guard Zahnyah Rockett scored 13 for the Lady Spartans.
Rockett is a transfer from Seymour.
“She’s had some really good games the last couple of weeks,” Hernandez said of Rockett. “She gives us another creator, another player that can put pressure on the rim to sort of open up the floor for us and for Kyndall down there (in the post).
“I’m proud of her because a lot of players, the first time in this (rivalry) game, can be a little shell-shocked, and early on I thought she was really patient in how she attacked and got to the rim and made some really good plays.”
Hernandez, in his second season as Webb’s coach, picked up his first win against Catholic.
“My assistants gave me a hard time in the sense of, ‘What do you mean, it’s just another game?’” Hernandez said. “I didn’t want to feed into (the rivalry and streak). I know how many we had lost. I felt like if we came in here and did what we needed to do, that should be enough.
Catholic (12-11, 1-1) went 4-0 against Webb last season and won its second consecutive Division II-AA state championship.
The Lady Irish were led in scoring Thursday by senior guard and Tennessee Tech signee Amaya Redd with 14 points and senior forward Maggie Frana with 11 points.
The Lady Irish trailed 23-19 after Redd’s basket with 3 minutes and 31 seconds left in the half.
Webb went on a 23-6 run spanning the rest of the second quarter and the third quarter, taking a 46-25 lead entering the fourth.
“We just did a good taking care of the basketball in that stretch,” Hernandez said. “We were able to rebound, run in transition. I thought we did a good job in transition. Kyndall got some easy ones. Harper (Ladd) got a couple of easy ones.
“I knew if we could keep that pace, I wanted to play as fast as humanly possible. When we get it off the rim and play like that, I think we have a chance to be pretty special.”
Boys’ game: Webb 61, Catholic 54
Alex Leeth scored 10 of his 17 points in the first half as the Spartans survived a slow start.
“(Leeth) kept us in it in the first half,” Webb coach Ricky Norris said. “He played like a man. He had his hands on most every ball and was just super aggressive. When he plays like that, typically we’re pretty good but he was by himself a lot of the time tonight in the first half.”
Webb (23-2, 3-0 in Division II-AA East Region) has won nine straight since a 79-59 loss to Calvary Christian Academy (Fla.) on Dec. 27. The Spartans’ other loss was to Moravian Prep (Fla.) by a 71-50 score on Dec. 14.
Junior wings Owen Lentz and Cam Swearengen scored 15 and 11 points, respectively, for the Spartans, and junior wing Wilson Luton added nine points.
Lentz was 4 of 10 from 3-point range and Luton was 3 of 7. The Spartans were 8 of 21 from 3-point range, and Catholic was 4 of 14.
Catholic (15-5, 1-1) was led in scoring by junior guards Carson Asbaty and Cade Murphy with 23 and 15 points, respectively.
Murphy, averaging about 23.1 points, has had the flu most of the week along with his teammates.
“(Murphy) did everything to try to prepare himself to help our team today,” Catholic coach JaJuan Smith said. “I’m just glad he was able to play with us.”
Smith said Asbaty was the only player on his team who hasn’t been sick.
“They all showed up to school today ready to play,” Smith said. “We tried to go with what we had and they fought. Those kids fought today.”
Catholic started Thursday’s game with a 9-0 run and had a 13-7 lead after one quarter.
Norris called Webb’s start “disappointing.”
“We’ve got an older team and we’ve played a really tough schedule against some high-quality teams,” Norris said, “and to come out and look like we hadn’t been in that environment before was real disappointing.
“I was shocked a little bit, but more importantly I was just disappointed. We can’t do that. We’re too experienced and there’s too much talent on this team to come out and start the game that way.”
Webb rallied for a 24-21 lead at halftime and had a 33-31 lead after three quarters.
“You’ve got to give Catholic a lot of credit tonight,” Norris said. “They’ve had a lot of guys who have missed some time with practices and I thought they really did some things that caused us not to play well. Coach Smith had them ready to go. They gave us fits tonight.”
The Irish had a 41-40 lead with six minutes left, but Webb went on 10-0 run.
Luton’s 3-pointer with 3:50 left gave the Spartans a 50-41 lead.
Asbaty’s 3-pointer with one minute left cut the deficit to 57-54.
After a Webb turnover, Asbaty missed a 3-point attempt that would have tied the game.
“We didn’t handle the end of the game well,” Norris said. “I thought they outplayed us in the last two minutes and had a chance to win. We turned it over. We missed free throws. We didn’t get any stops.
“The beginning of the game and the end of the game wasn’t very good for the Spartans.”
Article written by Dave Link/5Star Preps To read more on area high school sports or to see photo galleries, videos, stat leaders, etc… visit 5StarPreps.com — and use promo code New2024 for 30% off your first year or month subscription.
