LADY TIGERS TEAM UP TO HAND 72-69 SETBACK TO ROSARY

Their starting point guard quit. Their starting center was hurt.

Coming in with a somewhat disappointing 6-4 record, the Cape Central Lady Tigers needed to find a way to win.

What they found was perhaps their best game of the season.

Central got stellar play from its five starters -- with four of them scoring at least 14 points -- as the Lady Tigers claimed a 72-69 win over a solid Rosary team that wouldn't go away.

"One thing we did that we haven't been doing is we got good ball movement and got contributions from everybody," said Central coach Mark Ruark. "I really thought all year long we could get that type of offensive output. We worked on ball distribution this week n practice and it paid off for us."

To no surprise, Katie Dougherty led the Lady Tigers with 19 points. And Sara Hyslop and Alex Wieser both had good games with 15 points apiece.

But perhaps Kate Richards' contribution of 14 points was the biggest lift for Central.

Richards started in place of center Heather Jenkins who was still feeling the effects of a recent car accident. But the Lady Tigers didn't miss a beat with Richards, who played by far her best game of the year.

"Kate Richards, my gosh, what a game she had in her first varsity start," said Ruark. "She had a great week in practice. There's a coach's clich that you play like you practice and she certainly played that way this ballgame."

The Lady Tigers played a nearly perfect first quarter as they hit 10 of their first 16 shots and jumped out to a 23-13 lead with :33 left in the first quarter. Central actually led by 12 points with 2:03 to go in the first half, but Rosary (10-3) finished the second quarter on an 8-2 run and trailed 36-30 going into halftime.

Central protected its six-point lead in the third quarter, playing Rosary to a 15-15 stalemate.

Central took a 53-45 lead on the first possession of the fourth quarter, but Rosary simply wouldn't quit.

Rosary hit a couple threes then took the lead for the first time in the game, 67-65, with 1:35 to go on a bucket by Jasmine McCollough, who scored 14 of her 22 points in the fourth quarter.

But Wieser answered with a basket on the next possession to tie the game at 67. After a missed free throw on a one-and-one, Central was able to close out the game by making six of seven free throws in the final 54 seconds.

"We shot the ball pretty well, but we just took some bad shots late in the game," said Rosary coach Ron Sanford. "The effort was there, but once we got that lead, we made some mistakes.

"We didn't get any offensive rebounds and didn't stop them from getting them. That translates into a lot of points. Seventy-two is too many."

Sharron Lee and Ashley Eldridge, an impressive backcourt combination, scored 17 each for Rosary. Lee made four threes and Eldridge sank three from behind the arc.