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RUTLEDGE – Midway through the first period of Tuesday’s game against Union County, Grainger head coach Rusty Bishop had seen enough of his teams’ offensive nothingness.

The Lady Grizzlies trailed 5-1 at the 4:05 mark and Bishop benched his starters. The reserves were able to keep the score close the rest of the first period and when the starters were inserted back in to begin the second, they used a 10-0 run to grab the lead. While they didn’t play well the rest of the night, Grainger was able to do enough to pull away for a 48-38 win over the Lady Patriots.

Bishop was not a happy camper despite the 10-point victory. “We showed up but weren’t ready to play and had no energy. Sometimes we seem to think that just by putting a Grainger jersey on, teams are going to roll over for us. Give credit to Union County as they played really hard and made things tough on us on the defensive end for four quarters. We couldn’t execute much of anything offensively and got really selfish in our guard play. Most teams we play, we have a distinct advantage in the post but we refused to throw it in there tonight. They did some better things defensively tonight than they did at their place (in the first meeting) but hats off to Union County, they played well tonight.”

Maddie Hurst led the Lady Grizzlies with 13 points. Makayla Scott scored 11 points and Adison Hayes finished with 10. Kelsey Holt netted 12 points to lead Union County and Lexi Pressley added 10. The Lady Patriots got no production from their bench as all 38 points came from the five starters.

Grainger’s first field goal was the last one of the opening period as Alyvia Sneed’s basket with eight seconds left brought the Lady Grizzlies with within three at 8-5. Things turned around to start the second period as a 10-point outburst gave Grainger the lead. Union County clawed back into it to cut the lead down to one but Marly Tanner’s triple with three ticks left in the first half made the score 21-17.

The home team built a seven-point lead early in the third but then the Lady Pats reeled off 10 points in a row to take the lead at 30-28 on a basket by Pressley. Grainger responded with four points in 12 seconds as Scott went strong to the hoop and then Tanner had a steal on defense and a layup on the other end to give the Lady Grizz a 32-30 cushion headed to the final frame. “Every time we tried to build the lead to five or seven points, they made a run and made some shots from the perimeter,” Bishop said. “They kicked our tails on the boards on both ends and just made everything difficult for us tonight.”

Six straight points by Grainger highlighted the start of the fourth but Union County kept battling and got the deficit down to a single possession at 41-38 with 3:03 remaining in the contest. That would be it for the scoring the rest of the way for the Maynardville visitors as Grainger salted things away on defense and added seven points on offense to win 48-38.

The Lady Grizzlies will face Cocke County at The Den on Friday looking for revenge from a loss in Newport earlier in the season.

Coffey leads Washburn past Cumberland Gap in overtime

Braelyn Coffey scored 24 points on Tuesday night as Washburn snuck past Cumberland Gap for a 43-41 win in overtime.

With the win, Washburn improved to 16-9 on the season.

Coffey scored 17 points in the second half and overtime to lead the way for Washburn. Along with Coffey, Saylor Clay had 12 points while Hannah Williams added five and Megan Beeler had two.

It was a slow start to the game for Washburn as they trailed 7-3 after one with Coffey scoring all three points.

In the second, the offense got going as Clay scored nine points, and Washburn led 18-13 at the break. Coffey added four more points.

Washburn scored 11 more points in the third but trailed 29-28 heading to the fourth quarter. Coffey scored eight in the quarter while Clay added a 3-pointer.

In the fourth, Coffey scored eight more points as Washburn tied the game and sent it to overtime. In overtime, Washburn managed just four points, two each from Clay and Coffey, but held Cumberland Gap to two points as they hung on for the win.

Washburn will be back in action on Friday as they host West Greene.