Gallatin’s girls picked up their 18th victory of the season Tuesday night at King City but doing so was anything but easy.
This website brought to you in part by the following sponsor:
The Lady Bulldogs built a 10-point lead with a minute left in the third quarter but had to hold off a hard-charging Lady Wildkat club intent on pulling off an upset. Kelsey Maxwell scored five points in the final two minutes of the game to lift the Lady Bulldogs to a 53-51 win in a game rescheduled from Feb. 6.
Gallatin exited the first period with a comfortable 16-8 cushion but King City chipped away to pull within 24-22 at the half time break. Hayley Michael broke a tie in the third quarter with a three-pointer. Cora Stout added a two-point bucket. Consecutive treys by Megan Cox, Karley Salmon and Courtney Shubert threatened to blow the game open but the Lady Wildkats responded with 19 of the next 27 points.
A basket with just under a minute remaining in the game gave King City a 51-50 lead. The two teams traded turnovers until seven seconds were left when Maxwell scored down low off a Michael feed. Forced to foul, King City sent Maxwell to the line, where she pushed the GHS lead to 53-51.
Both teams used full timeouts to set their final strategy. The Lady Wildkats missed a potential game-winning trey but corralled the rebound. The game ended only when Maxwell took control of the ball after a final missed shot.
Maxwell finished with 18 points, hitting 7-of-11 shots in the paint and 4-of-4 from the foul line. Shubert totaled 10 points and a team-leading nine rebounds. Karley Salmon chipped in nine points and six assists. Michael also had four assists and four steals for Gallatin, which enters Thursday’s final regular season and home tilt against Stanberry with an 18-6 season mark.
KC boys 60, Gallatin 41
Second half scoring made all the difference in a Wildkat victory over the Bulldogs in the boys’ nightcap. King City scored 43 points in the final two quarters to claim a 60-41 win and sent Gallatin into Thursday night’s season finale with an 8-15 record.
Jett Simmons finished with 17 points to lead the Bulldogs. Other GHS scoring included: Colin Beck 7, Riley Homes 6, Blaine Bailey 6, Gabe Cole 2, Tristen Gibson 2 and Aidan Adkison 1.
King City totaled 21 points from the three-point arc.