Morristown-Hamblen East is 1-8 against the Smoky Bears since January of 2019 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Tuesday. Both teams will face off at 6:00 p.m. on February 6th without much rest after finishing up games yesterday. Hopefully Morristown-Hamblen East focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 12 on Saturday.
After a string of three wins, Morristown-Hamblen East's good fortune finally ran out. They took a 54-43 hit to the loss column at the hands of Cocke County. The defeat unfortunately continues a disappointing trend for Morristown-Hamblen East in their matchups with the Fighting Cocks: they've now lost nine in a row.
Despite the loss, Morristown-Hamblen East had strong showings from Harmony Sullivan, who scored 15 points along with seven rebounds, and Ella Wampler, who almost dropped a double-double on 11 points and nine rebounds. Sullivan has been hot recently, having posted 15 or more points the last five times she's played. The team also got some help courtesy of Hannah Hall, who scored five points.
Meanwhile, Sevier County waltzed into their game on Friday with 16 straight wins but they left with 17. They narrowly escaped with a win as the squad sidled past Morristown-Hamblen West 39-37. Given Sevier County's advantage in MaxPreps' Tennessee basketball rankings (they are ranked second, while the Trojans are ranked 133rd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Morristown-Hamblen East's loss ended a three-game streak of wins at home and dropped them to 19-7. As for Sevier County, their win was their seventh straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 23-2.
Morristown-Hamblen East lost to the Smoky Bears on the road by a decisive 48-31 margin when the teams last played back in December of 2023. Can Morristown-Hamblen East avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
