Mt. Juliet girls top Brentwood to reach state

MT. JULIET – The Brentwood High girls basketball team was determined to take away the inside in Monday’s Class AAA Sectional matchup at Mt. Juliet High School.

The undersized Lady Bruins did a solid job of that, but Mt. Juliet made them pay from the perimeter, knocking down eight 3-pointers in a 45-28 win to secure the Lady Bears’ second straight Class AAA state tournament appearance.

“Pick your poison — that was the scheme,” Brentwood coach Ronnie Seigenthaler said. “They’ve got dominant inside play and they’ve got guards that can shoot it outside, but 70 percent of their offense runs through the paint. Our goal was to limit 70 percent of their offense.

“We picked our poison.”

Mt. Juliet will square off with Blackman in Wednesday’s 1:15 p.m. Class AAA quarterfinal at MTSU’s Murphy Center.

Senior Ashley Roby, who buried back-to-back 3-pointers in the game’s opening minutes, tallied four treys for the Lady Bears (32-2), while senior Raeyana DeGray knocked down a pair of triples in the win.

“We got off to a pretty good start,” Mt. Juliet coach Chris Fryer said. “We shot pretty well from the perimeter and when we’re doing that we usually do pretty decent. You’ve got to tip your hat to Brentwood, though. They play awfully hard and they’re relentless on defense.”

Despite being scorched from beyond the arc, Brentwood’s pack-it-in defensive approach limited Mt. Juliet to well below its season scoring average (57.2 points per game). However, the Lady Bruins encountered plenty of offensive problems of their own against the long, athletic Lady Bears.

Brentwood (26-6), which committed eight first-half turnovers, managed just 13 points through the opening two periods, and didn’t crack the 20-point mark until early in the fourth quarter.

“We’ve gone games where we didn’t have eight turnovers,” Seigenthaler said. “We practiced against length, we prepared for length, and it was a little surprising to us that we turned the ball over like that. It was the length that was the reason for those turnovers.”

Roby led the way with 12 points for Mt. Juliet, and senior Ronjanae DeGray added 11.

“Two years ago (Brentwood) beat us in this exact same game, so we came with vengeance and wanted to get the W and go to state our senior year,” said Raeyana DeGray, who finished with 10 points. “It’s really important. We put in all the work this offseason to get this far so we’re really thankful.”

Senior Jenny Roy scored a team-high nine points for Brentwood, while Abby Sheely chipped in six on a pair of 3-pointers.

Reach Michael Murphy at 259-8018 and on Twitter @Murph_TNsports.