Lady Trojans battle to the buzzer against LaFayette
The Gordon Lee Lady Trojans put up a tremendous fight last Tuesday night, but would come up two points short to LaFayette, 51-49, in a thriller between the two longtime Walker County rivals in Chickamauga.
Gordon Lee trailed by four at the end of the first quarter, but rallied to take a 22-21 lead into the break. However, the hosts found themselves staring at a 38-29 deficit going into the fourth quarter.
Slowly but surely, Gordon Lee chipped away at the deficit. A 3-pointer by Sadie Gasaway and a short jumper from Gracie O’Neal was followed by a baseline jumper from Addison Sturdivant as the Navy-and-White pulled within two points of the lead with 2:50 remaining in the game.
LaFayette would push the lead back out to five, but two
Emma McGraw free throws cut the gap back to three points and, following a LaFayette turnover, Gasaway drilled another 3-pointer from the corner to tie the game with 53 seconds remaining.
An offensive foul following a Gordon Lee steal would be converted into a bucket for LaFayette, but O’Neal would score in the paint to tie the game at 49 with 14.2 seconds to play.
LaFayette would draw a foul at the other end and knocked down both shots to regain a two-point lead with less than 10 seconds remaining. Gordon Lee would get off one final shot attempt just before the buzzer, but it was off the mark as the Lady Ramblers escaped with the win.
McGraw hit three 3-pointers on the night and finished with a team-high 15 points. Gasaway ended her night with 10 points. Sturdivant and Ashlyn Schmidt had eight points each, followed by O’Neal with seven and Emma Phillips with one.
The Lady Trojans (0-6 overall, 0-1 in Region 6-A North) found the going rough on the road Friday night as the stateranked Lady Devils clamped down on the defensive end and picked up the victory in Gordon Lee’s subregion opener.
Tanesha Kirk had 15 points to lead the way for Bowdon.
O’Neal was the leading scorer for Gordon Lee with six points. Phillips and McGraw each finished with four.
Tuesday’s nightcap saw the Trojans fight back from an early hole to pull to within six points of the lead, 31-25, at intermission.
However, Gordon Lee would be limited to just eight points in the third period as LaFayette built on its advantage and one final big run by the Ramblers in the fourth quarter would seal the Trojans’ fate.
Gordon Lee got 12 points each from Robert Napier and Weston Beagles, while Napier’s points came on four 3-pointers.
Dusty Hopson scored 11 of his 13 points in the fourth quarter, including three 3-pointers, to lift Bowdon to a victory over the visiting Trojans on Friday night.
Tray Wyatt had 20 points for Bowdon, who led 28-27 at halftime.
Sam Norton drained four 3-pointers and finished with 19 points for the Trojans (24, 0-1). Beagles finished with 13 points and Will Carswell added nine.