Gallatin’s varsity girls squeezed past South Harrison, 59-58, last Friday night to hang on to a share of second place in the Grand River Conference basketball race. Now all they need is for South Harrison to do them a favor this week.
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This Friday night figures to be "tell all" night in the conference with a pair of big games on tap involving the league’s frontrunners. Unbeaten and state-ranked Hamilton travels to South Harrison to face the team that gave them their closest game of the season, while once-beaten Stanberry comes to Gallatin to face the once-beaten Lady Bulldogs in what amounts to an elimination game.
A South Harrison victory over Hamilton would drop the Lady Hornets to 6-1 in the league, and a Gallatin win would propel the Lady Bulldogs to 6-1, if they get by Maysville tomorrow night (Thursday) in a GRC makeup game. If that scenario plays out, South Harrison and Stanberry would fall into a third-place tie with two losses each.
Last Friday’s South Harrison game erupted off the opening tip with a fast-paced tempo. The two teams combined for 27 points in the opening 3 ½ minutes of action, but scored a combined 6 points in the remainder of the quarter. The game featured 5 three-pointers in the early going, 2 by South Harrison’s Kelsey Butler and Gallatin’s Courtney Ray, and another by Gallatin’s Ashley Owens.
South Harrison appeared to have the game in hand by mid-third period as the visitors built a 39-29 cushion, but Gallatin stormed back. Wren Tolen posted up for back-to-back buckets, and added another with under 2 minutes to play in the period. Maggie Strange capped a 13-4 GHS run with a layup off a steal that cut the gap to 43-42.
Gallatin tied the game at 47-47 when Courtney Ray double pumped a trey early in the fourth quarter. Strange, who came up big in the rebounding department, hit the boards aggressively on the defensive end and took the ball all the way for a layup to give Gallatin a two-point lead that it never relinquished.
Gallatin salted the game away at the free throw line, hitting all 10 attempts in the final period, including 8 pivotal foul shots in the final minute. Butler and South Harrison went down battling as the junior all-star banked in a trey from the top of the key ahead of the final buzzer.
Tolen and Ray each totaled 17 points to lead Gallatin. Tye Humphrey pulled down 8 rebounds. Tolen and Strange each added 6 boards. Ashley Owens added 8 points, 5 steals and 4 assists to Gallatin’s totals.
The Lady Bulldogs topped Princeton last night (Tuesday), 43-33, to move to 16-5 overall. A sub-par first half saw the Lady Bulldogs trail, 21-20, but a 10-0 run beginning in the third period and carrying over into the fourth, powered them to a double digit lead.
Ray’s chip shot off an in-bounds steal sparked the rally. Tye Humphrey hit two big buckets inside the paint. Gallatin held Princeton to only one field goal during a long stretch, and shut out the Lady Tigers in the paint until 2 minutes left in the game.
The Lady Bulldogs continued to shoot well from the foul line, hitting 12 of 14 attempts from the stripe.
Tolen led a balanced scoring attack with 10 points. Ray finished with 9 (6 steals), Alex Burge chipped in 8 (5 rebounds) and Humphrey totaled 7.
Gallatin’s girls take on Maysville on Thursday in league make up action. There will be no junior varsity games as originally scheduled.