By Brannon King

For the FCT

The Belgreen Lady Bulldogs defeated the Sheffield Bulldogs in the opening round of the Bulldog Classic Christmas Tournament at Belgreen on Saturday by a score of 50-38.

However, Belgreen came up short in the championship game against Marion County losing 57-52.

In the first-round game against Sheffield, Belgreen took control of the game early outscoring Sheffield by a score of 20-5 at the end of the opening quarter. The lead then grew to 35-14 going into halftime.

Sheffield outscored Belgreen 24-15 in the second half, but the early deficit was too much to overcome.

Belgreen’s Allyson Bragwell led all scorers with 15 points. Lexie Bragwell had 12 points for Belgreen followed by Hanna Taylor (9), Laken Bragwell (6), Breanna Wood (5) and Jasmine Martin (3).

Sheffield’s high-point scorer was Somerlyn Orick with 12 points.

In the second first-round game, Marion County defeated Colbert County to advance to the championship game against Belgreen and ultimately defeated the Lady Bulldogs in the Bulldog Christmas Tournament by a score of 57-52.

Marion County used a strong inside attack scoring many of their points under the basket.

The Lady Red Raiders trailed at the end of the first quarter but took the lead in the second and held it until Belgreen went ahead in the final period.

However, the Marion County squad fought back and picked up the win aided by a good fourth quarter by Alexis Hines.

Belgreen’s Lexie Bragwell led all scorers with 21 points in the game. She was followed by Allyson Bragwell (16), Jasmine Martin (11), Hanna Taylor (2) and Laken Bragwell (2).

Marion County’s Hines led her team with 15 points.

Belgreen head coach Richie Hester hoped his team would win the tournament but is still proud of his team’s effort and their willingness to play together as a group.

“We played good at times but we made some mistakes,” Hester said after the game.

“They killed us inside and we have to correct that.  We also had some shots that didn’t fall for us, especially in the first half.  They are a lot older than we are and that hurt us, too.

“That’s not the end of the season. We would have liked to have won our tournament, but how many people thought we would be 10-3 right now.”