LEES CREEK – The Washington Blue Lions basketball team denied East Clinton the chance to send its quartet of seniors out on a winning note, defeating EC 44-31 Thursday night .
With the win, Washington is now 8-13 overall, 4-9 in the SCOL.
East Clinton wraps up the regular season at 6-16 and 1-13 in the SCOL.
Washington jumped out to an 18-5 first quarter lead and extended the margin to 29-13 at the intermission.
Undaunted by the deficit, East Clinton stormed back in the third quarter with a 14-5 run, cutting the Lady Lions’ advantage to 34-27 after three periods.
Washington regained the momentum in the early minutes of the final quarter, spreading the margin back to 10 at 41-31 with just over 5:00 remaining.
Senior Alexis Gray led Washington with 11 points, including five in the final period as the Lady Lions outscored East Clinton 10-4.
It was a trio of Lady Astro players who scored six points each for game high honors — Paige Lilly, senior Marissa Williams and Lacey Peterman.
Kaitlin Durbin came off the bench to add 11 points, including all four East Clinton points in the final period.
Lady Astro head coach Steve Gerber called it a tough night for his departing seniors, but is pleased with the way the team has progressed as the year unfolded.
“We have come a long way and there has been signs of improvement. This group of seniors (Allison Tong, Sam Gaddis, Marrisa Williams and Cierra Cooper) has given a great effort all year long,” said Gerber. “We gave them the opportunity to start tonight. We just did not get off to a good start, but they played through it and I’m proud of each one of them.”
The Lady Astros committed 21 turnovers including 14 in the first half. Washington turned it over 14 times, including nine in the second half.
SUMMARY
Feb 4, 2014
@East Clinton High School
Washington 44 East Clinton 31
(44) WASHINGTON (2fg-3fg-ft-tp) Grey 4-0-3-11, McRoberts 1-0-3-5, Wallace 3-1-0-9, Haithcock 4-0-1-9, Hawk 1-0-2-4, Hines 1-0-0-2, Smith 2-0-0-4. Team Totals: 16-1-9-44.
(31) EAST CLINTON (2fg-3fg-ft-tp) Tong 2-0-0-4, Lilly 2-0-2-6, Williams 0-0-0-0, Cooper 1-0-0-2, Durbin 2-1-4-11, Davis 1-0-0-2, Peterman 3-0-0-6. Team Totals: 11-1-6-31.
