Scott City holds off Kelly, wins 49-43

SCOTT CITY -- Melanie Lacey netted a game-high 20 points and the Scott City girls basketball team overcame a horrendous night at the charity stripe Monday to knock off Kelly 49-43.

The Rams (9-3, 2-1) were 9 of 26 from the free-throw line, or 35 percent.

But Lacey made sure her team walked away with a victory.

"It was awesome," Lacey said. "We were pumped all day; we even ate breakfast together before school for a little team bonding."

Scott City used strong defense in the first quarter to gain a 13-6 advantage, the seven-point lead its largest of the first half.

The Rams held Kelly (9-6, 1-1) to two field goals in the quarter.

After Kelly scored the first two buckets of the second quarter to make it 13-10, Lacey went to work.

The junior netted two free throws and a basket to push the lead back to seven.

"She shot with confidence tonight," Scott City coach Kerry Thompson said. "She came out aggressive. I thought her defense was just as good as her offense. She played within herself and got after it."

Lacey offered a simpler explanation.

"Mostly get inside and draw fouls," she said. "Put them in the hole."

Although the Hawks allowed Lacey to have a big second quarter, they shut down the rest of the team, only allowing four points outside of Lacey's eight.

Scott City went into halftime with a 25-19 lead.

"I'll always take a lead at half," Thompson said. "The key is to play with a lead. You have to keep Kelly from making a big run, and for the most part we did that."

Rams senior Ashley Brant scored four points at the start of the third quarter to give Scott City its largest lead of the game at 29-19.

"We didn't do the little things tonight," Kelly coach Rod McQuerter said. "I told the girls you can't expect to win the big things if you can't do the little things."

McQuerter called a timeout a minute into the half and gave his team something to think about.

"I told them I can't wait for practice tomorrow," McQuerter said.

Kelly responded.

After the Rams' Katie Hogan hit a free-throw to make it 34-25, the Hawks made their move.

Bridgett Chandler drained a 3-pointer, and Kayla Hicks hit a free throw and a field goal to make it 36-31.

Scott City's Holli Shemonia scored from the field, but the Hawks' Londyn Backfisch and Hicks hit back-to-back shots to make it a one-point game.

The teams traded free throws at the end of the quarter, which ended with Scott City clinging to a 37-36 lead.

Lacey and Brant scored on consecutive trips down the floor to push the Rams' lead to 41-35 just 30 seconds into the fourth.

Backfisch responded with a jumper to cut it to 41-38, then forced a turnover but missed the break-away layup. Hogan buried a 3-pointer at the other end to stretch Scott City's lead to 44-38.

Kelly closed to within 45-41 on a Backfisch jumper with three minutes remaining, but Lacey and Stephanie Essner pushed the lead to 49-41 with baskets as the Rams closed out the victory.

"We have a lot of experience back from last year," Thompson said. "Last year we lost these games; we gave up the lead and couldn't recover. We've learned from those, and at the end of last year we started to close out games, and tonight that carried us, plus our bench play was tremendous."

Kelly 6 13 17 7 -- 43

Scott City 13 12 12 12 -- 49

KELLY (43) -- Londyn Backfisch 12, Kayla Hicks 10, Kristen Powell 8, Carissa Klipfel 5, Neely Tetley 4, Bridgett Chandler 3, Lacey Hicks 1. FG 16, FT 7-13, F 22. (3-pointers: Backfisch, Chandler. Fouled out: none.)

SCOTT CITY (49) -- Melanie Lacey 20, Ashley Brant 8, Holli Shemonia 8, Stephanie Essner 6, Katie Hogan 4, Stacey Heisserer 2, Macy Heisserer 1. FG 19, FT 9-26, F 15. (3-pointers: Essner, Hogan. Fouled out: none.)