Pushing It Real Good

Deep rotation lifts Lady Governors among state’s highest scoring teams

William Blount sophomore Lexi Campos weighs her options during the win over Heritage at Marvin Boring Gymnasium. Photos by Wallace Bowden

By Stefan Cooper
Editor
Blount Press Row

When you consider Hannah Fuller, William Blount’s top gun the previous two games, didn’t even score, we could be watching something special come together.

Sensational sophomore Lexi Campos led four players in double figures with a game-high 20 points, and the Lady Governors remained unbeaten in district play with a 69-60 win over rival Heritage just before the Christmas break.

William Blount, which sits in a first-place with Bearden atop the District 4AAA standings, opens play in the Renasant Christmas Tournament on Monday at Maryville High School.

The Lady Governors (10-3, 4-0 4AAA) meet Lake County (3-7) in the second girls game of the afternoon at 5:45.

Abbey McGuire, 17 points, Lindsey Roddy, 12, and Taylor Goforth, 10, super charged the state’s 10th-best scoring offense with a combined 10 3-pointers in the win over the Lady Mountaineers. Each connected twice from the arc.

Campos hit twice from the balcony.

She’s really got some range.

At 66.4 points per game, William Blount ranks with the elite when it comes to filling it up, with South Greene, 78.8 points, the state’s best regardless of classification. It’s how the Lady Governors are putting up those numbers that makes this a fun team to watch.

“The best thing about this team is we’ve got other people that can score too,” William Blount coach Todd Wright said. “The biggest thing is they enjoy playing together. They don’t care who scores. I feel it’s to our advantage there’s not one player you can shut down.”

Your first clue is the William Blount roster. Of 15 players, 11 of them are guards, and they all get minutes.

“You play hard, and you play together,” Campos said.

Four and five players arrive at the scorer’s table with every substitution, with Roddy, All-State in the pentathlon last spring, and Campos, a tall, athletic scorer with the whole game, the only possible exceptions.

Wright will often leave one or the other with a new four. Roddy, a leaper with truly restaurant-quality hops, leads in assists, but everybody gets in on the act.

Paced by strong nights inside by Katie Wolfe, 15 points, and Maddie Sutton, 14, with Kirsten Potenza pumping in 13 from the perimeter, Heritage was only two back at the half. The momentum swung for good once William Blount’s running post game began asserting itself when play resumed.

Racing up the floor, junior Maggie Bell got to the glass to collect a surprise rebound, distributing quickly to Roddy for a 3 to put the lead at 10 with four minutes to play in the third.

“I just kind of knew where she was,” Bell said. “We’ve been playing together so long.”

The lead was 52-39 to start the fourth. Heritage never surrendered the chase the rest of the way, but William Blount’s five-in, five-out substitutions can be a lot to overcome if you’re behind down the stretch.

Roddy refuses to get caught up in the unbeaten start to the district season. There’s still a long way to go, she said.

“It’s always a tough district, but we have the best chance we’ve had in years to be No. 1,” Roddy said, “but we’ve got to keep playing together.”