Lady Mustangs stunned in 4th frame; eliminated from district tournament

WAVERLY — It looked as though the Lynchburg-Clay Lady Mustangs had the game in complete control after three quarters. That wasn't the case, as the final eight minutes were anything but successful for LC, as they were outscored by 18 points in the final frame, sending them to a 46-40 Division III District Semifinal loss to South Point.

The Thursday night loss at Waverly High School in the district semifinal round saw the 16-win Lady Mustangs lead from the 4:19 mark of the first quarter until the 2:28 mark of the fourth, when South Point tied the score at 40.

LC (16-7) trailed for the first time since the early stages of the opening quarter with 1:43 left in the fourth frame by a 42-40 score.

In between, LC led 14-5 after the first frame and 25-9 at halftime. Even after the third quarter, the Lady Mustangs were still in front by a 35-23 score.

But in the fourth, everything positive for LC went away, as they were outscored 23-5 in the final eight minutes.

"I don't know what the difference was from the first half to the second half," LC head coach Whitney Lewis said. "In the first half, we played phenomenal defense, holding South Point to nine points the entire half … and in a district game, you don't see that often.

"The second half … I don't know what happened. We still played great defense, but they (South Point) came out and played a lot better. You don't get this far by being a mediocre team, and South Point was ready to go in the second half."

Turnovers were another problem for the Lady Mustangs as well.

"We turned the ball over too much in the second half," Lewis said. "They put that press on, and we didn't make some easy shots late in the fourth that could have put us back up, and that hurt us. That was a big difference in the ball game."

In the first half, it was absolutely all LC, with McKayla Binkley tying the score at 2-2 with 6:21 left in the opening quarter, followed by a 3-pointer by twin sister Hannah Binkley at the 4:19 mark of the first for a 5-2 advantage.

After two points by South Point, LC scored the next seven points from senior Sarah Rosselott and Ali Little, with Rosselott netting five of those points in that span. Rosselott and Little each led LC with nine points apiece.

With a 14-5 lead after the first quarter, LC won the second frame by an 11-4 score in the second with Little scoring the first five points of the quarter, followed by a 3-pointer by Hannah Binkley, who finished with eight points. The second-frame scoring came to a close with a long-distance 3-pointer by Morgan Fittro with 15.0 left in the half.

Even in the third, LC began the quarter with a jumper by Rosselott, but that was when the South Point rally began to take shape.

SPHS responded with eight consecutive points, followed by three straight turnovers by LC. The Lady Mustangs finally added more points in the third with a jumper from Madysyn Creighton to put LC ahead by 12 points with 3:59 left in the third.

At the 1:40 mark, LC took a 30-19 lead, following another two points by Creighton.

The fourth quarter started out with SPHS with seven straight points, cutting the LC lead to 35-29 with 5:01 left in the quarter.

Lexi Waits came off the bench and sank a 3-pointer with 4:39 left in regulation. From the 3:41 mark of the fourth to the final buzzer, SPHS outscored LC, 13-0.

Leading South Point (20-4) was Aundrea Bradburn with 12 points.

Coach Lewis also spoke about her lone senior in Sarah Rosselott.

"Sarah is a leader on the floor," she said. "She battled and never quit. She ended up fouling out because she was playing hard and going after the basketball.

"It is never any fun to lose as a senior in the tournament, especially like this when we were playing so well in the first half. Sarah has nothing to hang her head about. She doubled her scoring from last year and stepped up as a senior leader. I couldn't ask for much more from her."

LC has one regular-season game to make up on Saturday at LCHS when they host Peebles in a Southern Hills Athletic Conference makeup game.

From their very first game of the season until this tournament loss, LC showed improvement, especially with a very young team.

"For as young as we are, to have 16 wins … that is great," Lewis said. "From the first game until this game, we improved in all facets of the game, defensively especially.

"Offensively, we got more comfortable, and I'm looking forward to what we have coming back and see what happens."