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By: Chris Evans
The Guthrie Lady Jays coaching staff knew ahead of time before they matched up with the fifth ranked Lady Panthers, of Harrah High School, that they needed to play well and protect the basketball to have a chance against a very talented team.
And for the first 24 minutes of the game that is exactly what the Lady Jays did. They stood tall with Harrah until the game's final 6:36, as Harrah would out score Guthrie 11-1 in the last quarter to win 39-29.
Harrah improves to 9-3 on the season and Guthrie drops to 5-4. Guthrie now has lost back-to-back games for the first time this season.
Freshmen Tory Dwyer gave Guthrie a one point advantage, 29-28, with 6:36 to play in the game, but Harrah would score the games final 11 points to secure the win.
Prior to the fourth quarter, Harrah's biggest lead would be four points, 18-22 and 28-24, and Guthrie had a six point advantage, at one time, in the first quarter when they led 12-6 in the game's first 6:02.
The game would see four lead changes in the first 4:25, but Guthrie would control the scoreboard with a 14-13 advantage. Both teams would cool down in the second quarter offenisely with Guthrie scoring six points and Harrah adding nine second quarter points as Harrah led Guthrie 22-20 at the half.
Perhaps the turning point of the contest was when senior Bianca Smith went down with a knee injury midway through the second quarter. Prior to the injury, Smith had 10 points on 3 of 4 shooting and which including 1-2 from beyond the arc and 1-1 from the free throw line.
Senior Emily Davis finished the game with just seven points and six assists, but was a key factor in the contest with her ability to beat the full court, aggressive Panther press throughout the entire night.
The Lady Jays struggled shooting from three point land by shooting 1-7 (14%), but finished the game with just 12 turnovers while Harrah committed nine turnovers. Both teams shot free throws well as the Lady Jays were 6-9 and Harrah was perfect at 6-6.
Guthrie will next be in action on Tuesday night when they travel to Edmond to take on the Lady Antlers of Deer Creek High School. The tip time is set for 6:30 and can be heard on Triple Play Sports 105.1 FM with the pre-game show starting at 6:00 p.m.