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By: Chris Evans
No one likes to hear must win games, but many felt that is what the Guthrie Lady Jays were looking at when they took on Piedmont Tuesday night. If that was the case then senior Jessica Dwyer got the message.
Coming off a disappointing Deer Creek tournament with three loses, Guthrie responded with a 48-42 win over Piedmont inside Guthrie High School gymnasium. The Lady Jays get to the .500 mark, at 7-7, and is now 4-2 in conference play including 4-1 in the North Division.
Dwyer open the game by making Guthrie's first four shots from the field in the first 3:34 of the game and at the same time outscored Piedmont 8-5 in the same time frame. Dwyer ended with a game high 18 points and finished 7-16 (44%) shooting.
Tory Dwyer had a night to remember as well by scoring, a career high, 16 points in her young career. The Dwyer sisters would account for 70% of the teams points by scoring for 34 of the teams 48.
Sister and freshmen Tory Dwyer and junior Eryn Donnelly added a bukcet each to give Guthrie a 14-5 lead after the first quarter. A quarter, in which, Guthrie would go on a 9-0 run in a three minute span.
Piedmont would respond in the next quarter by scoring 13 points and holding the Lady Jays to 10 second quarter points. In the first half, Piedmont shot 43% from the field to Guthrie's 34%, but Piedmont would only manage 14 shots while Guthrie more then doubled that by making 10-29 shots.
Another factor in the half would the turnovers. Piedmont committed 10 while the Jays would only have two give away's. Piedmont seemed to be out sync offensively as Guthrie was able to push the Wildcat offense outside the arch for majority of the night.
Guthrie held a 24-18 half time advantage and both teams would not score much in the third quarter, but Guthrie was able for the most part keep an eight point advantage throughout the quarter.
With a 33-25 lead going into the fourth quarter, Guthrie would jump out to their biggest lead of the night when Tory Dwyer made two free throws to make it 35-25 with 5:45 to play.
Piedmont would get within four points,46-42, with 20 seconds to play after a Wildcat bucket. Piedmont then fouled senior Emily Davis with 17 seconds and Davis connected on both free throws to secure the 48-42 win.
Guthrie will now travel to Oklahoma City and Western Heights on Friday for another key North Division game. The Lady Jays defeated the Lady Jets 60-42 back on January 11th at Guthrie.
The Lady Jays will then return back home to play Deer Creek on Saturday night. Guthrie and Deer Creek have split their first two games on the season. Guthrie won the regular season game at home while Deer Creek won on their home floor last week in the Bruce Gray Invitational.