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The Parry McCluer High School girls basketball team eked out a 42-41 win over Gretna on Saturday at Rockbridge County High School.
It was the sixth consecutive win for the Fighting Blues (11-2), who trailed 38-34 late in the game before Peira Conner made a basket while fouled and hit a free throw to cut Gretna’s lead to 38-37. Kayleigh Ramsey then put PM up 40-39 by making a layup with half a minute left. It was PM’s first lead since the third quarter. Conner sank a pair of free throws to extend PM’s lead to 42-39 before Ashley Myers made a layup for Gretna (10-6), but it wouldn’t be enough, as the Blues held on for the win.
“It was a good team win, a good gut-check win,” said PM head coach Adam Gilbert. “We could have easily folded up, but we didn’t. To the girls’ credit, they fought through it and found a way. It’s not always gonna be pretty, but we found a way.”
At the start of the game, the Blues jumped out to a 10-4 lead. A 3-pointer each from Ramsey and Natalie Mohler would extend PM’s lead to 20-9. The Hawks quickly cut into the deficit with two 3-pointers from Chinara Miller as well as three pointers and a pair of free throws from Shakira Jones. At the end of the first half, PM led 23-17.
In the third quarter, the Blues managed only one point from an early free throw from Victoria Hamilton, while the Hawks scored 13 points, mostly on free throws, to take a 30-24 lead into the fourth quarter.
The Blues then started their comeback, with Hamilton hitting three free throws to help them chip away at the lead, setting up the final series of plays.
Gilbert praised the efforts of Mohler and Conner near the end, and Emory Slagle being able to break Gretna’s press, but he emphasized that the victory was “a good overall team effort win.”
Hamilton led PM with 13 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, while Conner, who was named to the Rock the Ribbon alltournament team, added 10 points and led the Blues with 12 rebounds. Ramsey scored seven points and grabbed seven boards, while Slagle and Mohler each chipped in six points, with Slagle grabbing eight rebounds.
Jones paced Gretna with 14 points, Myers added 13 points and Miller chipped in 12.
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