By JOHN VERSER
GLASGOW — Russellville erased a five point halftime deficit and outscored homestanding Glasgow 32-20 in the second half to pull out a 52-45 win on Monday night.
The Lady Scotties held a 10 point advantage late in the first half before Russellville cut the lead in half at the break. The late run gave the Lady Panthers momentum heading into the second half as they came back to pick up the win.
“They came out with a little more intensity in the second half than we did and I thought that was the difference in the game overall,” Glasgow coach Chris Crain said.
Glasgow led 28-23 on Shelby Ray’s fast break layup at the 4:50 mark of the third quarter. Russellville (7-4) used a 9-0 run to push ahead, taking a 30-28 lead on a 3-pointer by Nakia Daniel. Daniel’s second trey of the quarter gave the Lady Panthers a 35-30 lead with 1:45 left.
The Lady Scotties (1-11) got baskets from Amber Martin and Whitney Williams, both on assists from Ray, to cut the lead to 37-34 heading into the final quarter.
Glasgow pulled within one on a jumper by Micha Elmore and took a 38-37 lead on Williams’ layup with 6:58 left in the game. Williams’ basket capped an 8-2 Lady Scottie run that began late in the third quarter.
Russellville went back on top with baskets by Leandra Hoosier and Amber Sydnor, but Glasgow tied the score at 41-41 on an old-fashioned three point play by Kelsey Greer. Greer was fouled when she hit a jumper with 5:04 left and then made the foul shot to knot the score.
The Lady Panthers took control from there, going on a 9-0 run to take a 50-41 lead with 1:32 left in the game.
“We play hard. We play smart sometimes,” Crain said. “Our decision making down the stretch and in pressure situations has got to be better. Our rebounding in the second half hurt us. Overall, we’ve got to do a better job of finishing down the stretch and that’s the bottom line.”
Glasgow had its chances during Russellville’s late run, but the Lady Scotties missed three free throws during that stretch. They were just 3-of-10 from the foul line in the game.
Martin led Glasgow with 11 points and Haley Perkins added nine. Daniel had a game-high 22 points for Russellville.
The Lady Scotties took an early 8-7 lead behind a pair of 3-pointers by Perkins. Glasgow led 10-9 after the first quarter. Perkins was a force early on both sides of the ball with eight points and four blocks in the first half.
Martin stepped up offensively early in the second quarter. The senior guard hit a trey for a 13-9 Lady Scottie advantage and added back-to-back jumpers to extend the lead to 19-9.
“I’m proud of our girls’ effort in the first half,” Crain said. “We came out and really got on them early, played to our game plan and got shots that we wanted. We didn’t have a whole lot of problems with their press. We just made a lot of mental mistakes – some poor decisions, some bad shot selections. We kind of rushed some shots at the end of the first half and we weren’t patient on offense.”
Amber Sydnor’s trey cut the lead to seven before Williams and Ray hit layups to give Glasgow its largest advantage at 23-12 with 4:17 left in the first half.
The Lady Scotties held a 25-15 lead on Perkins’ jumper with 2:23 left in the half. The Lady Panthers scored the final five points of the half to cut the lead to 25-20 at the break.
“Time and score – that’s something that a young team’s got to learn more of,” Crain said. “We had a 10 point lead with about two and a half, three minutes to go in the half and we didn’t take care of the basketball and we rushed a lot of shots. That allowed them to cut the lead in half and get some momentum in the second half.”
Glasgow is back in action tonight in a 6 p.m. home district contest against Allen County-Scottsville.
Score by quarter
Russellville 9 11 17 15 - 52
Glasgow 10 15 9 11 - 45
Scoring
Amber Martin 11, Haley Perkins 9, Whitney Williams 6, Shelby Ray 6, Kelsey Greer 6, Micha Elmore 4, Charity Polston 2, Shawn Smith 1.
