Rising senior Lucy Tarrance hit a go-ahead shot in overtime to help the Grayson County Lady Cougars complete a sweep of games on Friday in Bowling Green.
The girls, who completed a busy first week of the summer period, defeated Glasgow 36-29 in the first game before taking down Monroe County 39-37.
Glasgow
When a game starts at 8:00am local time and is an hour bus ride away, it’s inevitable for a coach for be a bit worried about a slow start.
The Lady Cougars, however, were locked in and ready against the Lady Scotties, a team they scrimmaged in the preseason last year.
Hannah Smith got the scoring started for Grayson County after rebounding her own miss and putting it back up and in. Just a few possessions later, Smith would find her teammate Breigh Jones for a deep three and the Lady Cougars were cooking with an early 5-0 lead.
That lead would expand to nine before Glasgow would answer with a 5-0 spurt of their own.
That is where Lucy Tarrance took the game over to close the half. She had multiple rebounds that she put back in for points to go along with a pair of blocks as Grayson County took a 27-21 advantage into the break.
While the offense was fine in the first half, it really struggled on both sides in the second. The Lady Cougars would only shoot 20% from the field in the sequence, but stellar defense held the Lady Scotties to only six points en route to the 36-29 final.
In the game one win, Tarrance led the team in scoring with 11 points and six rebounds. Jones added eight points and four boards, with Smith coming away with six rebounds.
Monroe County
Another slow start could have doomed Grayson County in the second game as Monroe County jumped out to an early 10-2 lead.
In the blink of an eye, Tarrance, Jones, and Payton Bowman scored on three straight possessions to bring the deficit to only one at the halfway point of the first half.
The Lady Falcons held on to take a brief 18-15 lead into the intermission.
Despite having only four points at the half, Tarrance had been playing strong basketball throughout the morning, and the second half was no different.
She would score 12 second-half points to help push the Lady Cougars to the win. The highlights included her giving Grayson County their first lead at 19-18, and then giving the lead back at 28-27 after a nice pass from teammate Breigh Jones.
In the closing moments, Bowman was fouled with a chance to make it a three-point lead. She sank the free throw to force Monroe to make a decision of how aggressive to be.
They decided to take a timeout, and a busted play broke in their favor with an open three to tie the game up at 37 with five seconds left and forced overtime.
Overtime consisted of just a one-minute period. After Hannah Smith controlled the opening tip, Bowman would miss a three, but Tarrance was there for an offensive rebound putback to give Grayson the two-point advantage with 30 seconds remaining.
Monroe County ran the clock down before throwing up a desperation shot that was rebounded by Smith and the Lady Cougars took home a 39-37 victory.
Tarrance led the team in scoring with 16 points to go along with 11 rebounds, with Jones adding 11 points to join her in double figures.
Saturday Games
The Lady Cougars would return to Bowling Green on Saturday for a trio of games.
It was another strong performance as the team swept the Lady Purples, Warren East, and a team from Tennessee to finish the period 5-0.
Grayson County will now compete in the Cardinal Classic at George Rogers Clark this weekend.
By Sam Gormley, Play-By-Play Announcer/Local Sports
Reach Sam at sam@k105.com
