WINNSBORO – The Richard Winn Lady Eagles cruised through their first two SCISA Region 1-2A match-ups and won by a combined 84-28. They looked to make that 3-0 Tuesday night, at home against the Laurens Academy Crusaders. The Eagles led after a quarter, but Laurens marched back for a 38-32 win.
Meredith Pope (2) pops a three-point attempt in the defenders face. | Martha Ladd
Both offenses were neck and neck in the first. Lydia Wilder scored all of her three points in the first, and four other Eagles had two to give RWA an 11-9 lead after one.
Ruthie Moore tallied eight points in the second for Laurens and boosted the Crusaders to a 20-17 lead at halftime. Moore led all scoring with 18 and teammate Taylor Campbell finished close behind with 13. Calee Thigpen topped the Eagles’ scoring efforts with nine.
The neck and neck battle picked back up in the third quarter. Thigpen had four points in the third, and Laurens hit three free throws to go along with three field goals. After three, Laurens was hanging onto a tight 29-27 lead.
The Crusader defense went on lock-down mode for the final eight minutes. Thigpen nailed a three and Emma Castles knocked down a bucket, but aside from that there was no other offense to speak of.
Moore racked up five more points in the clutch, and the Crusaders went 7-11 late to put the game away.
The Eagles hit the road Friday to take on Newberry Academy and are back home next Tuesday against Anderson Christian.
LA– 9-11-9-9 – 38
RWA – 11-6-10-5 – 32
RWA – Calee Thigpen – 9, Taylor Spires – 5, Meredith Pope – 5, Hannah Gibbons – 4, Lydia Wilder – 3, Kim Albert – 2, Emma Castles – 2, Rayne Williams – 2.
LA – Ruthie Moore – 18, Taylor Campbell – 13, Blair Quarles – 5, Julia Kerber – 1, Jennifer Wu – 1.