By MIKE HUTCHENS
Messenger Sports Editor
Union City has fought through plenty to get back to the girls’ state tournament a second consecutive year.
Now there, the Lady Tornadoes are battling sickness and injury to put their best team on the floor.
Starters Tory Reedy and Kealie Reaves will be at less than 100 percent when No. 1 ranked UC (30-3) plays ninth-ranked Cloudland (24-11) Thursday morning at 10 in Murfreesboro in a Class 1A quarterfinal matchup.
Reedy, the team’s unquestioned floor leader and only senior, has spent the past two nights in the hospital nursing what has only been diagnosed as “a bug” by her father and UCHS assistant coach Chuck Reedy.
Tory was expected to be discharged this morning and to make the trip when her teammates left town for Middle Tennessee.
The team’s second-leading scorer at just over 13 ppg while also No. 2 in assists at 4.8 per-game, Reedy was noticeably hampered in the initial stages of her illness Saturday when Union City beat Middleton 46-32 in the sectionals to punch its second straight ticket to the ’Boro.
Reedy has played in every Lady Tornado game this season and has reached double figures scoring in 22 of the 33 games.
She has averaged 10.7 points through seven postseason games.
She’d been the recipient of two IV bags of fluid during the day before the game, but made just one field goal and scored three points in the contest after lighting up Lake County for 22 in the regional championship game and being named most valuable player in the tournament.
Reedy has reportedly lost around 10 pounds since Saturday.
The news on Reaves — injured in the first quarter of the Middleton game — was both bad and good.
An MRI performed on her knee Monday reportedly revealed a torn anterior cruciate ligament.
The cat-quick point guard who has wreaked havoc on opponents in the Lady Twisters’ smothering pressure defense this season, has been fitted with a brace and will reportedly try to give it a go in Thursday’s game.
Future rehabilitation for the sophomore backcourt performer will almost certainly include surgery in the coming weeks.
Union City has already overcome an injury to all-state forward Amber Fair that cost her the entire season to get this far.
Fair, easily the Lady Tornadoes’ most prolific scorer and best offensive player a year ago when she averaged 23 ppg in helping UC to the state tournament, was injured in preseason drills.
Head coach Eddie Suiter said the team dealt with the loss of Fair in a mature manner.
“We had a team meeting, and the girls had their cry. I wanted them to because it was disheartening for them to see Amber lose the chance to play this year,” he said. “I told them, though, ‘Don’t cry for yourselves; cry for Amber, if you cry.’ If they had cried for themselves, that would’ve been selfish. I thought it was nature to be sad for Amber, but I didn’t want them to be sad for themselves.”
Fair has undergone extensive rehab following surgery and is expected to return at full strength next fall for her senior season.
She reached 1,000 career points in her sophomore season.
Sports editor Mike Hutchens can be contacted by email at mhutch@ucmessenger.com.

Published in The Messenger 3.6.13