Lady Bulldogs fall at Washington Catholic

WASHINGTON -- Union (Dugger) players Gabrielle Smith (23) and Shayna Nicol have a Washington Catholic player defended well. (By Travis David/Greene County Daily World). [Order this photo]

The Bulldog senior appeared to score points number 29 and 30 after a steal on the far sideline, which would have tied the contest up, but on her way to making the lay-up Pirtle was whistled for an offensive foul.

Instead of a tie game with just 16 seconds remaining, Lady Cardinal senior Megan Worland went to the charity stripe at the other end and calmly knocked down two crucial free-throw attempts to stretch the lead to 51-47.

WASHINGTON -- Megan Gambill (21) goes up for a jump shot here Wednesday night. Gambill scored 11 points in the Lady Bulldog's 50-52 loss to Washington Catholic. (By Travis David/Greene County Daily World). [Order this photo]

Megan Gambill would knock down her third and final trey of the game from the top of the key drawing the visitors to within 51-50, but just 1.6 seconds remained on the game clock. Katie Sellers would make 1 of 2 free-throws for the Lady Cardinals and a desperation 3-point attempt from the length of the court was not on target nor on time as the final buzzer sounded.

With the loss, Union (Dugger) falls to 3-4 on the season.

"Well we fought through another battle tonight," Lady Bulldogs coach Benji Boyd said. "It's fun to have the girls compete like this, but would be better to come out on the winning end."

After Ashli Scott made her lone bucket of the night in transition with a pass from Gambill, to put the Bulldogs ahead 2-0 Washington Catholic surged ahead with a 7-0 run. The host Cardinals never were threatened from the visitors until late in the second half.

"We missed some shots early tonight that simply just made us look bad," Boyd said.

Pirtle was included, as she connected on just 2 of 15 shots from the floor in the first half.

"I told MaKaylee that she could very easily have just as good of a second half as she did a bad first half," Boyd said chuckling. "And that is exactly what she did

"She really strapped the rest of the team on her back there in the second half ,especially in the fourth quarter. Not a lot of people give her enough credit, but she moves so well without the ball and get to the right place in the floor where she can score."

Trailing 44-37 with just under five minutes to play in the game, Pirtle found her spot near the right corner. She drained a trey from the right wing with 4:27 remaining to make the score 40-44. On the next possession she made a spinning move from the right elbow and drained the shot to cut the deficit down to 42-44, then knotted the contest at 44 apiece with two free throws with 2:32 remaining.

The Bulldogs would then have a costly breakdown on defense, as Samantha Arnold was left wide open near the top of the key with 1:22 remaining. Arnold's shot hit nothing but the bottom of the net, and the Bulldogs were down two once again.

"We just had some miscommunication on the defensive end on some out-of-bounds plays tonight," Boyd said. "We lost track of their shooters, and the Arnold girl is their best pure shooter. You just can't loose track of a good shooter like that and not expect to have to pay for it."

The Ladt Bulldogs still had chances to at least force overtime until the questionable foul call towards the end.

"I am proud of the girls effort tonight," Boyd said. "They played hard and competed, that's all you can ask for."

Gambill chipped in 11 points to compliment Pirtle. The senior floor general for the Lady Bulldogs also hauled in eight boards and recorded four steals.

Gabrielle Smith had a career night in the losing effort. She had a game-high 11 rebounds which was also a career best, to go along with four points, four steals and one block.

"Gabby played a great game tonight as well," Boyd said. "She fought hard and did a nice job rebounding for us."

Ashli Scott (three points and one steal), Cheyenne Goodman (two points, three rebounds, two steals and one block) and Shayna Nicol (two points and four rebounds) rounded out the scoring for the Bulldogs.

Jordan Crew led the Lady Cards with 13 points, while Worland and Rachel Winchman joined in double figures with 12 and 10 points respectively.

Worland connected on four crucial free throws in the final minute to help ice the win for the Cardinals.

Union (Dugger) will be back in action Monday when they play host to Palestine-Hutsonville (Ill) in another varsity-only contest.

UNION (DUGGER) (50) -- Ashli Scott 1-6 1-2 3, Cassie Parr 0-2 0-0 0, MaKaylee Pirtle 9-29 9-12 28, Cheyenne Goodman 1-5 0-0 2, Megan Gambill 3-15 2-2 11, Gabrielle Smith 1-4 2-2 4, Cassandra Colon 0-0 0-0 0, Shayna Nicol 1-2 0-0 0. Totals 16-63 14-18 50.

WASHINGTON CATHOLIC (52) -- Megan Worland 3-11 4-5 12, Jordan Crew 6-10 1-2 13, Rachel Winchman 5-6 0-1 10, Katie Sellers 0-1 3-4 3, Samantha Arnold 3-6 2-4 8, Morgan Buckley 3-4 0-4 6. Totals 20-38 10-16 52.

Union (Dugger) 7 9 17 17 -- 50

Washington Catholic 14 8 15 15 -- 52

3-Pointers -- Union (Dugger) 4 (Gambill 3, Pirtle), Washington Catholic 2 (Worland 2). Rebounds -- Union (Dugger) 31 (Smith 11), Washington Catholic 33 (J. Crew 10). Steals -- Union (Dugger) 15 (Pirtle, Gambill, Smith 4), Washington Catholic 4 (Winchman 2). Turnovers -- Union (Dugger) 12, Washington Catholic 21. Fouls -- Union (Dugger) 20, Washington Catholic 16. Fouled out -- None.