By Staff
Scot Beard
The Red Bay varsity girls basketball team put a scare into Florence Friday during the RHS Invitational, but in the end, the Lady Falcons were able to use their size to pull away for a 46-44 victory.
Red Bay, which struggled with its shooting in the first half was able to stay in the game by hitting 10 free throws before halftime.
The Lady Tigers only scored twice from the field during the first half and trailed 16-14 at the half.
"We had good looks inside, but we didn't finish," said Red Bay coach Donnie Roberts. "We put a lot of emphasis on free-throw shooting because it is a big key to winning."
Red Bay was 12-of-15 from the line during the game.
Florence opened up a four-point lead twice in the third quarter only to see Red Bay rally to tie the score, but the Lady Falcons built a 32-29 lead after three quarters of play.
Florence added to its lead and was up by as many as six points midway through the fourth, but Red Bay continued to fight and Kristen Sharp tied the game at 41-41 with 43 seconds remaining in the game.
Florence scored then added three free throws to pull ahead 46-41 with eight seconds remaining.
The Lady Tigers' Morgan Duncan hit a three at the buzzer to pull Red Bay within two points.
"I am proud of these kids playing a 6A school," Roberts said. "Proud of them defensively and how hard they played."
Whitley Sharp and Duncan led the Lady Tigers scoring with 11 points each while Kirsten Sharp added 10 points.
Rounding out the scoring for Red Bay was Hannah Sharp with seven points, Caitlin Childers with six points and Morgan McKinney with two points.