Lady Rams pull away to down Greenbrier
Behind a 21-point performance from sophomore point guard Amelia Rogers, Lakeside beat Greenbrier 53-41 at Lakeside Athletic Complex Tuesday night.
The Lady Panthers (7-3) kept the game close for a majority of the contest, but the Lady Rams (5-3) pulled away late. Heading into the fourth quarter, Lakeside held a 30-26 advantage. Greenbrier brought the game within 37-35 after a shot from Emma Rehm.
Lakeside responded with a nice move in the paint from senior Sarah Porter to jump ahead 3935. After a Lady Rams’ timeout and an easy layup from Rogers after a turnover, Lakeside closed out the game. Lakeside head coach Jay Williams said his team was able to pull away down the stretch because of its conditioning.
“It probably comes down to our conditioning,” he said. “With our basketball team, we want to make sure that our girls are strong. We want to make sure that they’re staying in shape throughout the whole season. In times like this, in crunch time, when your brain is tired and your body is tired, you’ve got enough to go down the stretch and pull out a win.”
Porter scored 15 points for Lakeside, and Kennedy Brock added nine points for the Lady Rams.
Throughout the game Porter used her experience to make baskets when it really mattered.
In the third quarter with Greenbrier making a comeback, Porter made a move in the paint and drew the foul as she made her layup. She tacked on the ensuing free throw for a 30-24 lead.
“I think it was a good win for us,” Williams said. “It’s definitely a testament to what we’ve been trying to work toward. Going through a little bit of adversity, playing hard on both ends of the court and I think we did a good job of that tonight.”
Greenbrier received a bench warning early in the contest after arguing about calls that were made by the officials. In the fourth quarter after Brock drained a 3-pointer, Greenbrier’s head coach Payton Edmondson received a technical foul.
Rogers hit both free throws after the technical foul, and moments later Lakeside added another 3-pointer to fully put the game out of reach at 49-37.
“I thought we got fouled on a layup, and I asked him about it,” Edmondson said about the technical foul.
Rehm scored 24 points for the Lady Panthers, but the rest of Greenbrier’s team struggled to score. The second highest scorer for the Lady Panthers was McKayla Betts with nine.
Lakeside took a 9-8 first quarter edge after a 3-pointer from Brock, and the Lady Rams closed out the first half with a 5-0 spurt to lead 18-14 at intermission.
“I thought we played hard,” Edmondson said. “I thought we competed well. We just didn’t score the basketball like we normally do, especially in the first half. It’s pretty uncharastic for us to have 14 in a half. I felt like that just kind of put us behind a little bit, and then we kind of forced some things. But overall we just have to score the basketball better.”
During a timeout late in the second half, Williams told his team to stop turning the ball over. He attributed those second half turnovers to mental fatigue. However, his team was able to fix its problems and see out the win.
“I don’t think it was as so much as stamina but just mental fatigue,” he said. “We haven’t faced that type of adversity throughout the season. We haven’t had a team that pressed us in the closing moments of a game. It kind of distracted us and got us off our rhythm. But we were able to compose ourselves and gut it out late.”
Edmondson credited the Lady Rams for pulling away late.
“They hit some huge shots down the stretch,” he said. “We got it all the way down to two, and they hit some big shots to stretch it back out. So credit to them. They made free throws and big shots when they needed to. Lakeside’s a really good team ,and facing this kind of stuff on the road is only going to prepare us for conference.”
Moving forward, the Lady Rams can use what they learned in their performance against Greenbrier throughout the rest of the season.
“This team is a really good team,” Williams said. “Greenbrier, they run a lot of sets. Their girls are constantly moving, so it’s going to prepare us to be able to guard those guards that are quick and fast and close out on shooters.”