Lady Rams drop heartbreaker
Robertsville Middle School girls basketball Coach David Scott felt his team let a victory slip away Thursday night in Farragut.
“This one was tough, but sometimes this happens with a young team, and it’s early,” Scott said after the Lady Rams squandered a lead in a 27-25 loss to the Lady Admirals at Bobby J. Henry Gymnasium.
“We’ve only played four games, and we did some good things out there today,” Scott said.
“We did a good job with the things we’ve been working on in practice,” he said. “We gave ourselves chances to win, but we also did enough to take some of those chances away.”
The Rams (2-2) led for most of the game, and held a 20-13 advantage heading into the fourth quarter.
Robertsville might have had a larger lead, had Farragut’s Addison Everley not made a basket as time expired in the third quarter.
The shot provided a spark for the Lady Admirals (8-3), who opened the fourth quarter with an 11-1 run and took a 24-21 lead on a free throw by Bailey Ann Smith with 1:45 remaining.
The Lady Rams answered late as Azariah Lee and Bella Bradley made consecutive shots to give Robertsville a 25-24 lead with 24.7 seconds to play.
However, Farragut’s Elin Rotan hit the game-winning three-pointer with 13.7 seconds left.
Despite the non-league loss, Robertsville had several bright spots.
The Lady Rams, who led 15-11 at halftime, kept Farragut off the scoreboard in the third quarter until Smith’s buzzer-beater at the end of the frame.
Robertsville also dominated the glass during the first three quarters, and its defense forced Farragut into multiple turnovers before the Lady Admirals made their comeback.
In the fourth quarter, the Lady Rams struggled to contain Farragut’s Audrey Vann, who scored all six of her points in the final six minutes of the game.
Lee led all scorers with nine points for Robertsville, while Bradley added seven. Rotan paced Farragut with seven points.
