©2009 NPT PHOTO BY RUSSELL LAWS

Cosby's Brittany Frisbee (center) finished with a double-double, 14 points and 14 rebounds, in the Lady Eagles' loss at Pigeon Forge on Monday night.

PIGEON FORGE-Cosby went on the road Monday night for an out-of-District get-together with Pigeon Forge. Fortunately, they were out-of-District as the Lady Eagles (6-5) fell 53-40 to the Lady Tigers (12-6), and the Eagles (8-5) also fell 65-46 to the Tigers (7-9). Remember, however, that Cosby moved up a class to renew this rivalry.

LADY EAGLES FALL SHORT

The Lady Tigers are having a great season in a very tough District, and they brought their 'A' game against the Lady Eagles Monday night.

The Lady Tigers raced out to a 7-0 lead, despite a tough and swarming Lady Eagle defense. The Lady Eagles wouldn't get their first two points until the 2:39 mark when senior Whitney Hartsell knocked down two free throws. A three-pointer from Pigeon Forge's Kelsey Brooks was followed by an offensive rebound and put-back by Cosby's Brittany Frisbee to bring the first quarter to an end with the Lady Tigers in front 12-5. Both defenses were working hard through the first eight minutes with the Lady Tigers forcing eight Cosby turnovers and the Lady Eagles forcing five turnovers.

The Lady Eagles turned up their offense for the second frame and got back into the game. In a two-minute span, the Lady Eagles closed the game to 14-13 off of a three-pointer by Hartsell, foul shots by Jessi Daruna, Frisbee and Kalsea Mantooth with 4:50 remaining. That was followed by a Pigeon Forge 9-3 run, including a three-pointer by Courtney Ball, to make it 23-16 at the 1:35 mark. But Frisbee gave the Lady Eagles a strong closing grabbing two more of her 14 rebounds on the night, and getting put-backs on both to make it 25-21 Lady Tigers at the break.

The Lady Eagles came out of the locker room fighting to start the second half. Frisbee scored following an assist by Mantooth, and returned the favor feeding Mantooth for a bucket to tie the score at 25-25. Pigeon Forge's Ashlyn Trotter knocked down a three-pointer to regain the lead, but Hartselll responded with another three-pointer of her own to even things up. But, the Lady Tigers went on a three-point scoring binge to finish out the quarter, hitting three straight for a 38-28 lead heading into the final eight minutes.

The Lady Eagles continued to attack on offense, but the Lady Tigers defense responded with steals and forcing turnovers. The Lady Eagles were down by as many as 14, and managed to cut the lead to single digits, 9, but couldn't overcome the Lady Tigers offensive attack. The Lady Tigers took the final quarter 15-12, and cruised home with the 13-point victory, 53-40.

"Brittany (Frisbee) played big tonight, getting a double-double (14-points, 14-rebounds)," said Eagle head coach Richard Coggins. "Our goal tonight, win or lose, was to play hard, and we did that the entire game. If we had hit our foul shots, we would have had a chance. But, Pigeon Forge is a good team. We played them hard and that's really all you can ask."

The Lady Eagles finished 13-56 (23%) from the floor, 3-14 (21%) from 3-point range, and 9-21 (43%) from the free throw line. The Lady Eagles had 39 rebounds and suffered 21 turnovers.

The Lady Tigers finished 19-55 (35%) from the floor, 6-22 (27%) from 3-point range, and 9-17 (53%) from the free throw line. The Lady Tigers suffered 14 turnovers on the night.

Cosby scoring (40): Brittany Frisbee 14, Whitney Hartsell 13, Kalsea Mantooth 8, Jessi Daruna 3, Alyssa McMahan 2.

Pigeon Forge scoring (53): Megan Kilgore 13, Kelsey Brooks 12, Courtney Ball 10, Chelsea Webb 9, Ashlyn Trotter 5, Danielle Rauhoff 2, Ashley Wojnowski 2.

EAGLES TRY LONG RANGE

A contrast in styles offensively in this game. The Eagles were firing from long range while the Tigers were pounding the ball inside.

Senior Trenten Dunn got the Eagles in front with a three-pointer early, but the Tigers jumped out to an 18-6 lead before Dunn connected on another shot from beyond the arc. Sophomore Robert Herzog followed by a two to make it 21-11 at the end of the first quarter.

Dunn cut the lead to seven to start the second quarter on a potential four-point play. He hit the three-point shot, and after being fouled on the play, missed the free throw. The Tigers canned the next six points before Dunn struck from long range again to make it 27-17 Tigers at the five-minute mark. After a basket by Chris Grooms and a two by Dunn, the Eagles cut the lead to eight, 29-21. But, the Tigers closed the quarter on a 6-2 run for a 35-23 lead at the break.

The Eagles kept up the fight in the third quarter to stay within striking distance. A three-pointer by Herzog got the Eagles to within six, 35-29, but the Tigers answered back with a three-pointer of their own. Then, senior Jonathan Manning got a steal and a fast-break lay up, and a free throw after being fouled on the play to make it 38-29 at the 5:40 mark. Even still, the Eagles were fighting just to keep pace. Despite three-pointers by Nick Baxter and Herzog and a two-pointer from Dunn, the Eagles trailed 48-38 heading into the final quarter.

Herzog got the Eagles off on the right foot draining a two to cut the lead to eight. But the turnover bug struck the Eagles and the Tigers scored seven unanswered points to up their lead to 18, 58-40, with 5:35 remaining. Dunn hit two more of his game-high seven three-pointers to get the Eagles to within 12. But, they could get no closer as the Tigers finished on a 7-0 run for the 19-point victory, 65-46.

"We just couldn't play any defense," said Eagle head coach Brad Flatford. "They really did what they wanted to do against our defense. I though we played hard at times, and we had a chance to cut their lead to seven in the fourth quarter, but turnovers bit us. The same thing happened to us in the Hancock County game. We keep shooting ourselves in the foot, and have to stop doing that if we're going to win games again."

The Eagles finished 16-39 (41%) from the floor and 9-22 (20%) from 3-point range. The Eagles had 22 rebounds and 18 turnovers in the game.

The Tigers finished 27-50 (54%) from the floor and 3-6 (50%) from 3-point range. They had only eight turnovers in the game.

Cosby scoring (46): Trenten Dunn 28, Robert Herzog 10, Jonathan Manning 3, Nick Baxter 3, Chris Grooms 2.

Pigeon Forge scoring (65): Ben Cave 15, Justin Carter 15, Mark Isaacs 13, Cody Dixon 11, Adam Gwinn 7, Tommy Todd 2, Nick Kascawski 2.

BOY'S JV

This reporter made a mistake in Sunday's story about the Cosby boy's junior varsity squad. We had the junior Eagles at 4-1, when, in actuality, they are undefeated at 6-0 following their 49-48-nail biter victory over the junior Tigers Monday night.

The Eagles had a 17-14 first-quarter lead, but trailed the Tigers by one, 25-24, at the break. The Eagles took the third quarter 12-9 to make it 36-34 heading into the final eight minutes and then hung on for the one-point victory, 49-48.

Cosby scoring (49): Corey Conard 17, Andrew Adams 12, Brandon Gates 12, Zach Webb 4, Jake Ledford 4.

Pigeon Forge scoring (48): Aaron Justice 19, Nick Kassawski 12, Caleb Owenby 8, Andy Barnett 5, Cameron Faulkner 6, Glenn Hodge 2.

UP NEXT: No rest for the weary as the Eagles and Lady Eagles continue their busy week tonight.

Both squads and the boy's JV team, return to the hardwood for District 2A games against J. Frank White at the Eagles' Nest.

The Lady Eagles (6-5, 5-0) are alone atop the District 2A standings and defeated the Lady Knights (2-3, 2-1) 60-36 in Harrogate back on Dec. 16. The Eagles (8-5, 4-1) are tied for second with Hancock County, and trail Jellico by one game on the loss column in the District 2A standings. The Eagles defeated the Knights (1-3, 0-2) 73-31 in Harrogate, also on Dec. 16.

Boy's JV will start things off at 4:30 this afternoon, followed by the Lady Eagles and Lady Knights at 6:30 p.m. and the Eagles and Knights at around 8 p.m.

Both varsity games will be broadcast live on WLIK, AM-1270, starting at 6:15 p.m. with Brian Evans providing the play-by-play.