Scott City hangs on to beat Meadow Heights

The Scott City Rams were able to survive a late rally by the Meadow Heights Panthers to escape with a 47-43 win on Wednesday at Scott City High School.

The Rams led 40-31 at one point in the fourth quarter before the Panthers rallied to cut the lead to 40-38, but the Rams were able to thwart multiple Meadow Heights possessions to hang on.

Rams coach Cindy Henry said she saw practice pay off with the way her team closed the game.

“Everything that we’ve been working on in practice, you can tell it’s coming into play,” Henry said. “The girls are seeing the benefit of being patient and working together as a team and taking quality shots.”

After the first quarter, the Panthers led 8-6 before both offenses took off in the second quarter and the Rams took a 23-20 lead into the locker room at halftime.

The third quarter featured much of the same offensively as both teams continued to score and the Rams led 35-31 entering the final quarter.

Henry has seen her team improve despite injuries over the season.

“I saw a lot of growth,” Henry said. “We’re making good decisions and working together as a team. We had some good plays and we had some bad (plays) but in the end, we made it to a good place.”

With the Rams leading 40-38, they would miss the front end of a one-and-one with 6 seconds left, but senior Liza Dannenmueller sealed the game with an offensive rebound on senior night.

“Liza is an incredible player,” Henry said. “Her ability to fly around and rebound is one of my favorite things about her. She’s a great leader. The underclassmen really look up to her.”

Gracie Karrenbrock had a game-high 17 points in the win for the Rams. Mackenzie Lawless had 13 points and Dannenmueller had 9 points.

Leading the way for Meadow Heights was Jaycee Shelton with 13 points, Ashley Allen with 12 points, and Rachael Hellebusch with 10 points.

Meadow Heights (13-6) will return to action at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Feb.9 when the Panthers host Advance.

Scott City (14-7) resumes play at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Feb, 9 when the Rams travel to take on Portageville.

“We’re going to have to continue to get back in the gym and continue to grow confident,” Henry said. “We have all the skills, we just have to continue to grow and be confident.”