Lady Mustangs move past Lady Lions in final minutes
DODSONVILLE — It took all that the Lynchburg-Clay Lady Mustangs had to offer, but they were able to outlast Highland County rival Fairfield in one of the more physical games played this season by either team.
LC used their height, defense and their ability to overcome a few Lady Lions rallies to defeat not only their county rival, but their Southern Hills Athletic Conference foe as well, by a 49-44 score Thursday at LCHS.
As for the star of the game, that title most definitely belonged to LC junior Ali Little. The junior post player scored 20 points on offense, she grabbed a total of 21 rebounds and she also had seven blocked shots and four steals to help lead the Lady Mustangs to the win.
LC head coach Whitney Lewis described the game had by Little, as LC moved to 9-7 overall on the year and 6-3 in the SHAC.
"Ali had a great game," Lewis said. "She's been playing really well the last few weeks, and we've been trying to take advantage of that.
"They started out in man but switched to a zone to stop her a little bit, but she was able to still crash the boards and get some easy shots."
As for other reasons why LC was able to gain a five-point win against an improving Lady Lion squad, look no further than the final eight minutes, as LC had to fend off every rally the Lady Lions had in them.
To start the fourth, LC took a six-point lead with McKayla Binkley scoring two points in her return to the court after missing a few games due to an injury. Those two points were followed by the Lady Mustangs building an eight-point advantage with points in the paint by Vanessa Thiel.
With the score 38-30 in favor of the hosts, the visiting Lady Lions (2-6, 5-9) weren't finished just yet, making the game more interesting and a lot closer with consecutive 3-pointers from Kaitlin Evans at the 6:41 mark and with 5:57 left in regulation for a 38-36 deficit.
Evans led all scorers with 22 points, including four 3-pointers.
"Kaitlin's shooting was big for us," FHS head coach Chad Hamilton said. "She's put in a lot of time, and she's irreplaceable. She's the kind of engine that makes us go and gets everyone else fired up.
"She's definitely a very important part of our team."
The two teams exchanged points with Little scoring for LC and Justice Hattan for the Lady Lions. Later in the quarter, FHS scored again to make it a one-point game with under four minutes to play with points by Haley Bobb.
From there, though, LC managed to keep control of the game, never losing the lead on their home court for the remainder of the game.
What became a 8-4 run to end the game saw LC have points from McKayla Binkley, Hannah Binkley and Little, with Hannah Binkley making three straight free throws during one trip to the free-throw line with 2:19 left in the game for what was a 47-40 lead.
"We got on a couple runs where we just took over the game, and when we do that we are pretty good," Lewis said. "We let them back in when we missed a few rebounds, and they got some shots that made it close.
Hannah Binkley totaled 10 points in the win, finishing 5-of-7 from the free-throw line.
FHS came back with two points from Evans and two points by Lydia Sowders, but the final two points of the game came from Little with 37 seconds left on the clock.
"I was very happy with the effort," Hamilton said. "We got down early and didn't quit. We started to make some shots and made a game of it.
"We had our chance to win, but Lynchburg-Clay is a good team who plays good defense, and we just needed a few more to go our way. We are going in the right direction, and I'm happy with the effort."
As for the first half, LC built a 15-8 first-quarter lead after eight minutes, though it was FHS who forced three tied scores in the first eight minutes by Blake Adams and Grace Shope, as Shope tied the score at 6-6 with 4:55 left in the quarter.
LC ended the first frame with six straight points from Lexi Waits and Little for the seven-point lead.
By the time halftime arrived, LC was still out front by a 24-17 advantage, with Little, Morgan Fittro and Waits contributing to the second-frame scoring for the Lady Mustangs.
In the second for the Lady Lions, they ended the quarter on a 9-2 run, including five points from Evans, a jumper by Carly Arnold with 2:46 on the clock and two points from Shope, who finished with 10 total points.
The Lady Lions trailed by just four points after three complete quarters, as they were able to outscore the Lady Mustangs, 13-10.
Fairfield's third saw Evans score nine of the 13 points, and Shope scored four.
"We were coming off a tough loss on Monday (at Fayetteville), so we wanted to come in and play well," Lewis said. "I though we played another great first quarter, and it slowed up at the end, but we were able to make a run at the end and get the win."
In JV play, Lynchburg-Clay defeated Fairfield, 36-26. For LC, Abigail Blankenship led with 12, and teammate Shelby Marshall scored 10 points. For FHS, Abby Newkirk scored eight points to lead the Lady Lions, and Chelsie Hester finished with five points.