History: Lady Irish join ’20 champs at state Final 4
First state trip for Catholic girls hoops
KNOXVILLE — The Knoxville Catholic High School girls basketball team just continues to reach milestones for the program in 2020-21.
The Lady Irish will make their first-ever trip to the Division II-AA State Tournament “Final Four” in Cookeville late this week.
Catholic (14-16) punched their ticket to the state’s grand stage with a 54-40 victory versus Pope John Paul II in a state quarterfinal tilt Saturday, Feb. 27, at KCHS. The win came eight days after the Lady Irish won their first region title in school history.
Despite the team’s overall state tourney inexperience, “This will be the third time that I’ll be going to the state tournament,” said senior Jeila Greenlee, a transfer from Science Hill High School in Johnson City who scored nine of her 11 points in the second half versus PJP II (15-12). “This is the first time for these girls and I can’t be more excited to go with them. We play as a team and we don’t care who scores.”
Tied 12-12 at the end of the first frame, the Lady Irish opened a 28-21 lead by halftime before really blowing things open in the third stanza.
Catholic opened a 53-31 advantage behind freshman Sydney Mains, who had a game-high 24 points.
“Jeila had a big second half and Jaz (Williams) was big in the first half,” KCHS head coach Travis Mains said. “Syd was solid for the whole game and Sharon (Wilson) had a good game.
“Ella Renfree did some big things that don’t show up on the stat sheet,” he added.
