Richmond’s girls held on to defeat Gallatin, 49-42, for third place in the Lawson Invitational Tournament.
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Richmond’s girls jumped out to an early double digit lead behind the dominating presence of 6′ junior center Cassie Hunt, and with her in foul trouble late in the game, held on to defeat Gallatin, 49-42, for third place in the Lawson Invitational Tournament.
The story line for Gallatin was a tale of two entirely different halves. The Lady Bulldogs shot 23% from the field in the opening half to find themselves down 16 points at the break. Gallatin came storming back to pull within single digits down the stretch.
“I was proud that our girls never gave up,” said GHS girls coach Rick Lin. “We cut the lead to six late in the game, but ran out of time,” he added.
The Lady Spartans led by as many as 20 points in the second quarter before Gallatin made a run. Trisha Sprague nailed all three chances of a three-shot foul to breath new life into the Lady Bulldog game. Hunt left the contest with four fouls at the two-minute mark of the third
Ayrica Batson stuck back her own miss to cut the lead to 35-36, but Richmond’s Traci Oden converted an old-fashioned three-point play (field goal & free throw) and added a baseline runner to give Richmond a 40-26 lead heading into the final period.
Amy Hudlemeyer drove the lane for two points to cut the lead to 42-32. Gallatin’s comeback drive continued with Hunt back in the ballgame. Maria Burge put back a teammate’s miss to cut the Lady Bulldog deficit to eight points. Sprague, fouled again on a three-point attempt, hit all three free throws to slice another point off the spread.
A hustling Sprague claimed inside rebounding position and dumped in a putback to make the score 47-41 with under 30 seconds remaining.
Sprague finished with 11 points, including nine of 10 shooting from the foul line, and grabbed six rebounds. Kinsey Batson scored 11 points and pulled down six boards. Burge added 10 points and five boards. Courtney Ray registered a team-high four steals for Gallatin.
The Lady Bulldogs fell to second-seeded and GRC rival Hamilton by a 41-38 margin on Thursday night. Despite an effort that limited the Lady Hornets to five second-half field goals, the Lady Bulldogs could not close the gap after a 16-6 second quarter (after an 11-0 run).
Gallatin came out cold, hitting only one of eight shots to begin the contest. The Lady Bulldogs balanced a slow scoring start with good defense, and Burge and Sprague hit shots to close the first quarter to give Gallatin an 8-6 advantage.
Ray came off the bench to score seven straight points that helped pull the Lady Bulldogs to within 31-24 with 5:30 left to play, but the Lady Hornets were able to close out the contest hitting eight of nine chances from the foul line.
Sprague led Gallatin eight points after being shadowed all over the court by 6’1″ Elizabeth Vollmer, who countered with 12 points from the low post. Adrienne Ford led Hamilton with 15 points.
2006 girls all-tournament team: MVP Mallory Craig (Fr.), Smithville; Vanessa VanBleisem (So.), Smithville; Elizabeth Vollmer (Sr.), Hamilton; Trisha Sprague (Sr.), Gallatin; Jelessa Stafford (Jr.), Lexington; Cassie Hunt (Jr.), Richmond.
Dogs ousted early
For the second straight year, the Lawson Tournament proved to a stumbling block for a Bulldog team that came into the event with only one loss. On the losing end of a 55-44 decision against Richmond on Tuesday, the Bulldogs took an early tournament exit on Wednesday after a frustrating 59-58 loss to Lexington.
The Minutemen, who entered the tournament as the #8 seed, put the Bulldogs in an early hole by hitting their first four shots of the game, all from behind the three-point arc. Lexington’s nine treys in the contest, coming from three different players, accounted for nearly 40% of their field goal total.
Gallatin trailed at the break, 33-24, but battled back to within 46-44 at the end of the third period.
Andrew Adkison pumped in a career-high 28 points for the Bulldogs. Nic Burrell added 19.
2006 boys all-tournament team: MVP Andrew Jones (So.), Smithville; Zach Welch (Jr.), Smithville; Corey Thomas (Jr.), Richmond; Joe Kassanavoid (So.), Lawson; Kevin Holt (Sr.), Hamilton; Erick Roe (So.), West Platte.