Basketball Recap: Blackman Falls Despite Big Games from Lyriq Mastin and Layla Hall

After flying high against Wilson Central last Friday, Blackman came back down to earth. The Blackman Blaze took a 56-49 hit to the loss column at the hands of the Cookeville Cavaliers on Monday. The Blaze have struggled against the Cavaliers recently, as the game was their third consecutive lost meetings.

Layla Hall

Field Goal Percentage

03/03/25 vs Cookeville	50%
02/28/25 vs Wilson Central	50%
02/24/25 vs Rockvale	56%
02/22/25 vs Riverdale	57%

Blackman's loss shouldn't obscure the performances of Layla Hall, who shot 50% from the field to rack up 19 points, and Lyriq Mastin, who went 8-for-19 en route to 20 points. Hall is on a roll when it comes to field goal percentage, as she's posted one of at least 50% in the last four games she's played.

Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Cookeville to victory, but perhaps none more so than Cara Lee Gilbert, who went 5-for-11 on her way to 20 points. Another player making a difference was Callie Reeder, who shot 88% from the field en route to 17 points.

Blackman's defeat dropped their record down to 23-4. As for Cookeville, the victory made it two in a row for them and bumps their season record up to 22-7.

Blackman does not have any more games scheduled as of now. As for Cookeville, they didn't take long to hit the court again: they've already played their next contest, a 45-32 win against Lebanon on the 5th.