The Gatlinburg-Pittman Highlanders took on the York Dragons in a TSSAA Class 2A state tournament semifinal at the Charles M. Murphy Athletic Center on Friday, March 14, 2025, in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. (Photo by Danny Parker)
BY JESSE SMITHEY
MURFREESBORO — One team had Reese Beaty. The other didn’t.
Not hard to sum up the the Class 2A girls state semifinal Friday afternoon between Gatlinburg-Pittman and York.
Had Beaty not returned late in the regular season from a shoulder surgery, then perhaps Friday would have played out differently.
But Reese, an Iowa State signee, came back sooner than anticipated.
And the skilled senior guard has been on a tear down this homestretch.
She scored 31 points inside MTSU’s Murphy Center on Friday, proving to be the deciding factor in York’s 60-45 win over Gatlinburg-Pittman.
Beaty went 10-for-22 shooting while also hauling in 10 rebounds and dishing out four assists.
Cheyenne Byrd led Gatlinburg-Pittman with 15 points.
The Lady Highlanders led early, but once Beaty saw a shot fall through, that spark of confidence flamed into a bonfire.
Gatlinburg-Pittman (25-12) will return star guards Maliyah Glasper and Chloe Mejias for the 2025-26 season, as the program tries again to reach the semifinal round again and find the blueprint that works. Three of the last four Lady Highlanders seasons have concluded in the final four. The program has never reached the title round.
“It’s always nice to look to the future, but when you’ve gotten to this (semifinal) game as many times as we have, you really want to get over the hill,” G-P coach Katie Moore said. “I thought this was going to be the group would be the group that did it for us, because so many people were doubting us.
“But we’ve been down going into the fourth and we’ve come out with wins in big games. We just didn’t hit shots (today) down the stretch when we needed to.”
Glasper finished 11 points and four fouls in 20 minutes. Mejias had 10 points on 4-for-10 shooting.
Down 11 at the break Friday, the Lady Highlanders needed a run immediately out of the half to diminish the deficit and manifest some hope. But by the midpoint of the third, York led by 12 at 39-27. G-P’s perimeter offerings didn’t fall or come close, and York kept attacking the rim to keep the margin wide.
Beaty’s diving layup made it 43-30 late third quarter.
York (30-5) had only two turnovers, as well, in the first 24 minutes and led 45-32 with a quarter to go.
Even when Beaty messed up, all went York’s way. She atypically airballed a 3 from the left wing in the first minute of the fourth, but a teammate snagged it and put it in for a score.
The Lady Highlanders could never get the lead down to single digits in the second half. Byrd’s layup for G-P with 6:13 remaining made it 47-37, but York’s Cali Franklin hit a 3 some 20 seconds later to prevent a run from forming.
G-P had a chance with 2:32 left to cut the deficit to nine but missed an open layup.
Beaty scored with ease on the ensuing possession to move the lead back up to 13.
“Missed layups are always such a gut punch. We talk about all the time in practice,” Moore said. “Missed layups can just suck the air out of you.”
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York and Beaty came out cold, missing their first seven shots in the first quarter — Beaty going 0-for-3 in that span.
That frigidity lasted no time. Just two minutes, roughly.
Beaty scored 21 first-half points on 7-for-14 shooting to lead the Dragonettes to a 32-21 halftime lead.
Gatlinburg-Pittman led by as many as three (12-9) late in the first quarter, but Beaty scored the last four points of the opening frame and carried that momentum in the second quarter.
She had six points in the opening two minutes of the second to trigger an 8-0 run.
“I came back about two weeks early ahead of schedule,” Beaty told 5Star Preps about her shoulder recovery. “That was my choice. … These girls are like my sisters.
“If I had a shot, I was definitely going to come back and try. Now, knowing that it’s my last year and my last shot, it makes it even more urgent.”
5STAR PHOTOS powered by SmartBank — Gatlinburg-Pittman vs. York (2025 Class 2A Girls Semifinals)