Lady Bulldogs survive scare from Butler and SH girls
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Local meteorologists are cautiously predicting that this week’s brutal snap of snow and cold temperatures could be the last for quite some time. You can bet area basketball coaches, players and athletic directors hope so.
Monday night’s precipitation, coupled with blowing snow and cold temperatures, forced cancellation of nearly all basketball action in NW Missouri on Tuesday, including key Grand River Conference girls games. Gallatin was scheduled to take on Princeton, in Trenton, while Hamilton was due to take its unbeaten GRC mark to Maysville to face the once-beaten Lady Wolverines.
The Gallatin-Princeton game has been rescheduled for next Monday, at the same location. District tournaments will be seeded on Saturday, and next week figures to be a busy one as area squads scramble to play their remaining regular-season games.
Gallatin survived a scare from Kelsey Butler and her South Harrison teammates Friday night, and moved to 5-2 in GRC play and 16-5 overall with a 39-32 victory.
Gallatin led from the start as South Harrison opened with a 4 ½ minute dry spell from the field. The purple and white Lady Bulldogs got very few chances to run their offense in the first quarter and seldom saw a possession with more than one shot attempted.
Gallatin led, 16-6, at halftime, but here came Butler. The SHHS sophomore scored nine points in the third quarter. With five minutes left to play in the game, Butler had outscored the entire GHS crew in the second half. She tied the game at 27-27 with a shot at 3:11, then fed teammate Lindsey Landes under the hoop for a bucket that gave South Harrison a 28-27 lead.
Ashley Owens fired up a trey to swing the momentum back to Gallatin. Courtney Ray snared a long rebound, dribbled around a pair of defenders and drew a foul. She notched both ends of a two-shot scenario to make it a two-possession game, 33-28.
Ashley Beck came off the bench just in time to sink two important free throws for the visitors with 22 seconds left.
Owens led a balanced GHS attack with 11 points. Ray and Kelsha Bundy each tallied eight for Gallatin. Wren Tolen chipped in six points.
The GHS Lady Bulldogs travel to Stanberry on Friday to face a team struggling since the loss to injury of point guard Marci Luke. The Lady Bulldogs face always-tough LeBlond at home next Tuesday and travel to Lathrop on Friday for the final regular season game.