Lincoln County High School’s Lady Falcon basketball team punched their ticket for the state tournament with a 55-39 win on the road over Beech High School in the Sectionals. It will be the program’s first ever State Tournament appearance. The ladies match up with Cleveland High School on Wednesday at 11 a.m. at Murphy Center on the MTSU campus in Murfreesboro.
Abby Bryan led the scoring for the Lady Falcons with 19 points in the ladies’ 55-39 win over Beech High School. LCHS was up 23-16 at the break but the Lady Buccaneers came back taking the lead 26-25 with 3:21 in the third. In the final frame, it was all Lady Falcons winning the period 25-13 picking up 19 points from the line.
Lincoln County High School’s Lady Falcon basketball team punched their ticket for the state tournament with a 55-39 win on the road over Beech High School in the Sectionals. It will be the program’s first ever State Tournament appearance. The ladies match up with Cleveland High School on Wednesday at 11 a.m. at Murphy Center on the MTSU campus in Murfreesboro.
Paul Henry photo
Abby Bryan led the scoring for the Lady Falcons with 19 points in the ladies’ 55-39 win over Beech High School. LCHS was up 23-16 at the break but the Lady Buccaneers came back taking the lead 26-25 with 3:21 in the third. In the final frame, it was all Lady Falcons winning the period 25-13 picking up 19 points from the line.
Paul Henry photo
The Lincoln County Lady Falcons made history last week, qualifying for the state tournament for the first time in program history. The clinching moment was Saturday night with a win at Beech, 55-39.
The road leading up to this unforgettable night started on Feb. 23 when Lincoln County beat Brentwood, 70-53, in the first round of the region tournament.
The following Monday night was another win or go home game against the Nolensville Lady Knights, a physical team with tenacious defense that specialized in forcing turnovers.
Lincoln County led 38-27 going into the fourth quarter; however, Nolensville battled back to a tie game of 44 with 25.2 seconds left.
Lincoln County had the last possession and had to work the full length of the court against Nolensville’s 1-2-2 press. After crossing half court, the task for the Lady Falcons switched to draining the clock to hold for the last shot.
Abby Bryan passed up an open three-pointer with seven seconds left, then got the ball poked away. She hustled it down on the right wing, turned around and threw up a prayer with 0.5 seconds left.
As the horn sounded, the ball went in the basket, not even grazing the rim. This would send all Lincoln County fans in attendance into a frenzy of celebration. The Lady Falcons won 47-44.
That made for round four against Coffee, this time for the 4A region five championship. Lincoln County was not at full strength that night.
Midway through the fourth quarter against Nolensville, Alyssa Petty injured her foot, forcing her to miss the last four minutes of that game plus not playing at all against Coffee County.
Lincoln County sorely missed Petty as the scoreboard showed, losing to Coffee County 56-30.
Despite the loss, it may have been the most meaningless game against Coffee County all season. Why? Because there was still an opportunity to go to the state tournament.
The Lady Falcons would have to travel to Beech Saturday night to make program history. Beech came into the night 22-8, fresh off winning the region six title over Hendersonville which clinched home court advantage.
Lincoln County started out hot in the first quarter leading 12-2. Shots were falling offensively and the defense executed well on their end.
The Lady Falcons stayed ahead at halftime, but it wasn’t comfortable. What was once a 20-7 lead had been cut down to 23-16 at the half. By midway third quarter, Beech took their first lead of the night 26-25.
Veteran senior Allie Bonner made sure that was short lived. She hit a three pointer to put Lincoln County by two and they never trailed again. The Lady Falcons did almost all of their fourth quarter scoring at the free throw line. They made 19-22 free throws and sealed the victory by a 16-point margin.
For the first time in school history, the Lincoln County Falcons are going to Murfreesboro as participants, not spectators. But how did they arrive to this milestone?
Every great team starts with leadership at the top. Since arriving as the Lincoln County boys head coach in 2004, Chad Tipps has led three teams to district titles.
The first was with the boys in 2013, and he got the team to another district championship game in 2017, his last season as boys coach.
The following season he took over as girls head coach and has built quite the winning standard. In the last 3 seasons including this one, the Lady Falcons have a combined 73- 21 record that includes district titles in 2022 and 2023.
Tipps’ top assistant, Pat Cavender, also brings a wealth of experience. Coach Cav coached for over 30 years at multiple high schools in Alabama, and has been an assistant for the Lady Falcons even before Tipps became head coach.
Another coach that can’t be overlooked is Matt Prince. A former player and long-time assistant for Tipps with both the boys and girls, who has trained multiple players on Lincoln County’s roster during summers to improve their skills. Prince is currently an assistant with Sparkman girls’ basketball in Alabama.
Of course a great team needs great talent, which the Lady Falcons have. The headliner is junior Abby Bryan, on track to be Lincoln County basketball’s all-time leading scorer, regardless the boys or girls side of the sport.
Next is junior point guard Molly Brown, whose score first mentality has her on track to cross 1,000 career points next season.
The last of the big three is junior Alyssa Petty, a dynamic 5’8” forward with a wildly gifted combination of strength and speed. Though she is the reigning district MVP in soccer, she too is on track for 1,000 career basketball points.
The defense is anchored by senior Allie Bonner. Her best friend Maggie Franklin makes critical hustle plays on both ends of the court. And the other defensive specialist is Coach Tipps’ daughter Grasen, a sophomore whose stellar shooting has played a big part of this playoff run. T
he last ingredient to a deep playoff run is playing well at the right time. Some coaches refer to this as “peaking.” This seems to be the case for the Lady Falcons.
Bryan has led Lincoln County the last four games in scoring, averaging 16.8 per contest. There’s also the shooting of Grasen Tipps, who’s made 18 threes in the last six games.
The defense has also clamped down, allowing over 50 points only twice in their six playoff games. It’s put together a complete puzzle for Lincoln County.
The state tournament begins Wednesday at 11 a.m. for Lincoln County. As always the tournament venue is the Murphy Center on the campus of Middle Tennessee State University. The Lady Falcons’ first ever district tournament game will come against the Cleveland Blue Raiders.
While Lincoln County is beyond ecstatic to reach this point of the season, focus has shifted from getting to state to winning the 4A state championship.
