Lawrence County girls drop close one to Central

Dec. 1—MOULTON — The Lawrence County Red Devil girls basketball team had their first home game on Thursday against the Central Florence Wildcats.

After a 30-plus-point loss to Lexington last time out, they needed a win but couldn't find it. It was a close contest throughout, but the Red Devils ended up on the short end of a 48-44 final.

"Our execution is just not right there yet, but I'm excited about the work we've got to do to get there," Head coach KC Orr said. "We just need some time."

Central held the lead for the first three periods of play, but Lawrence County closed the gap. They led 14-7 at the end of the first, then 25-19 at halftime. At the end of the third period, Central was up only by one, 32-31.

"We have some young pieces in very key places, so it's all about growing up right now," Orr said. "It's all about them learning to get better every time they play the game."

Lawrence County took the lead for the first time 2 minutes into the final quarter and held it until the final seconds.

"I loved our grit and the fight we had tonight," Orr said. "We did a lot of good tonight on the defensive end, but our offense really needs to pick up."

With 15 seconds left, Central's Akeema Rivera grabbed an offensive rebound off her own missed free throw to go up again for the lead-stealing layup making it 45-44.

The Red Devils then turned it over on the inbound and Wildcat Izzy Hadock ran the fast break to lay it in and go up by three with 10 seconds left. A missed shot from Lawrence County saw Rivera make one of the final free throws to ice the game and make the final 48-44.

"I love the fact that their fighters," Orr said. "That's what we want to move forward with."

Ava Templeton led the scoring column for the Red Devils with 13 points and Alivia Terry was right behind with 12. Jaala Hawkins was next with seven points and Kylie Graham rounded out the top four scorers with seven.

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Lawrence County boys 61, Central Florence 52: Zander Keepers was the top Red Devil scorer with 18 points and 14 rebounds. Jack Boyll was next with 12 points coming off the bench. Kaiden Wear was third in the scoring column with nine, and Eli Long rounded it out with eight.