Warriors slide past Lady Maroons

By JIM CUNNINGHAM/Staff

A late basket by Chilhowie broke a tie score and gave the Lady Warriors a 55-53 win over the George Wythe Lady Maroons in the Hogoheegee District girls’ basketball championship game Friday night at Marion Senior High School.
The game was tied after Shelbie Bennett of GW converted one of her two attempts from the free throw line to make it a 53-53 game with 39 seconds left.
Chilhowie worked the ball up court and called a time-out with 29 seconds left. Then Nikki Sage took a pass and scored with about 20 seconds remaining.
The Lady Maroons had at least one shot after that but could not get the tying basket as time expired.
Since the Lady Maroons finished runner-up in the district, they also advanced to the first round of the regionals. GW was scheduled to play at Floyd County on Monday (last night).
The Lady Maroons were led in scoring by Ashley Buckhannon with 29 points, including four 3-pointers. Lacey Price and Ami Hall scored 10 points apiece.
Chilhowie was led by Fallon Walker with 12 points and Sage with 11.
It was a close game throughout with three lead changes in the first quarter alone.
CHS led 4-2 in the opening couple of minutes before Buckhannon scored the next seven points to put GW up 9-4.
The Lady Warriors rallied to take an 11-9 lead at the end of the first eight minutes.
GW fought back to lead through most of the second quarter until Walker connected on two free throws to put CHS up 22-21 with 50 seconds left in the first half.
Buckhannon, however, knocked down a three-pointer to give the Lady Maroons a 24-22 advantage at halftime.
There were three more lead changes in the third quarter as Chilhowie led by just two (41-39) going into the final quarter.

George Wythe 9 15 15 14 – 53
Chilhowie 11 11 19 14 – 55

George Wythe – Julie Compton 0 0-2 0, Ami Hall 5 0-0 10, Shelbie Bennett 0 2-6 2, Chelsie Corvin 1 0-0 2, Ashley Buckhannon (four 3-pointers) 5 7-11 29, Lacey Price 4 2-2 10.
Chilhowie – Krystal Patton 2 1-2 5, Emily Doane (three 3-pointers) 1 3-3 14, Hillary Overbay 2 1-2 5, Nikki Sage 5 1-2 11, Heather Hash 4 0-0 8, Fallon Walker 5 2-2 12.
(T – 1:13)