Nashville girls hold off Sylvan Hills

Nashville overcame a slow start and withstood a late rally by Sylvan Hills to hold on for a 46-43 victory at Sylvan Hills Middle School on Wednesday afternoon.

The Scrapperettes ( 11-2) came alive in the second quarter to trim the Lady Bears’ lead to one, trailing 23-22 at the half.

“The beauty of being strong inside and outside is we feel like if you’re going to make them do something, they can do it outside,” Nashville Coach Paul Dean said. “Sylvan Hills is a really good team. They handle the ball very well and are very good competition for us, so we were very fortunate.”

Sylvan Hills Coach Shelley Davis thought her team had a chance to escape with a victory.

“I don’t think they are a team that could beat us nine out of 10 times, I just feel it’s a good, competitive game,” she said. “We didn’t do what were were supposed to do on several possessions, and that makes it hard to come from behind.”

Neither team showed much offense in the first quarter, which ended with Sylvan Hills ahead 7-4. Nashville took the lead on a field goal by Sidney Townsend with 6:42, but the Lady Bears (4-2) eventually led 7-2 with 3:20 left in the quarter.

In the second quarter, the Scrapperettes scored after a minute, then Sylvan Hills came back to nab an 11-6 lead on backto-back field goals. Nashville edged ahead 14-13, but Sylvan Hills responded.

The Lady Bears took a 23-18 lead with under a minute left in the half, but two field goals by Nashville trimmed the deficit to 23-22 with 7.5 seconds left in the half.

Nashville asserted control with 6:22 left in the third quarter when Townsend hit a field goal to tie the score at 27-27. Two free throws by Lauren Carver gave the lead to the Scrapperettes, who pushed the advantage to four on a basket by Kaylen Scoggins.

Jianna Morris sank two free throws to trim the lead to 31-29, but Scoggins hit a three-pointer with 1:55 left in the quarter to give Nashville a 34-29 lead.

Morris hit two free throws for the Lady Bears to start the fourth quarter, but Ellen Spigner hit a field goal for Nashville, and the Scrapperettes eventually led 38-31.

Two field goals from Townsend helped Nashville build a 42-35 lead. Two free throws by Olivia Dean pushed the lead to 44-35.

Sylvan Hills hit two three-pointers to cut its deficit to 44-41. Kareisha Lowery then stole the ball from Nashville and was fouled on a layup attempt. She hit two free throws to make it 44-43 with 37.4 seconds left.

Lashonna Cooper increased the Nashville lead to 46-43 by hitting two free throws after being fouled by Shayla Golden with 16.5 seconds left.

Morris missed a shot at the buzzer that would have tied the game.

Cooper had 10 points to lead the Scraperettes while Morris had a game-high 18 points for the Lady Bears.