Lady Bulldogs fall to Lady Lions late

J.R. Tidwell/FCT Erica Smith (14) of the Lady Bulldogs drives around a Haleyville defender Tuesday night.

Everything looked good for the Belgreen Lady Bulldogs in Tuesday night’s contest against the Haleyville Lady Lions.

That is, until the Lady Lions took the lead with 15 seconds remaining in the third — a lead that Haleyville would turn into a 55-40 win.

“It seemed like ‘Mission Impossible,’” Belgreen head coach Ritchie Hester said. “We self-destructed in the second half.”

Both teams had difficulty getting shots to fall in the first quarter, with the score only 7-2 in favor of Belgreen at the end of the first eight minutes.

Haleyville hit three 3-pointers in the second to narrow the gap to 18-11, but Belgreen kept scoring points after getting offensive rebounds.

The Lady Bulldogs had a 10-point lead at intermission, but the Lady Lions came out of the break firing on all cylinders.

Belgreen still had the lead by the end of the third, but only by one point after Haleyville went on a 20-11 run.

The Lady Lions quickly retook the lead in the first 1:15 of the fourth quarter. Haleyville would maintain the advantage this time by making shots and stealing possession.

“We had some solid defense that made up for our missing shots in the first half,” Hester said. “We lost our intensity in the second half and we couldn’t find the basket.”

Laken Bragwell had 13 points for Belgreen, Erica Smith had 11, Bridget Thompson had 8 and Allyson Bragwell had 7.