By JONATHAN GREENE
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
BLAND, Va. — The Bland County Lady Bears didn’t make a basket in the final frame, but it didn’t matter.
They did hit 15 free throws down the stretch as they pulled away from Narrows 48-38 on Friday night at Bland High School.
“I knew it was going to be rough,” Bland County coach Jason Lambert said. “Narrows is healthy. We played Savanna Burton in summer and she dominated us then. It took us a good half to not be scared. She’s a great player.
“It took us awhile to get going. I told them at halftime we need to toughen up. It takes a team effort. I think they 12 points in the second half. Overall team effort tonight. I was pleased.”
The Lady Wave led for the majority of the game building a seven-point lead midway though the third. It wasn’t until the fourth were their foul trouble and missed free throws caught up to them. Narrows was just 10 of 21 from the line for the game and put Bland County in the bonus for the entire fourth quarter.
“We can’t miss foul shots,” Narrows head coach Wayne Gautier said. “That put us out of the ball game. They made theirs and we didn’t. Their last 15 points were from the foul line.
“Our inexperience there at the end showed. They’re young. We should of beat this bunch. They’re a good team and I’m not taking anything away from them. We let this one get way.”
“We got to play defense without reaching. Stupid fouls,” Narrows head coach Wayne Gautier said.”
The Lady Bears limited Savanna Burton to 10 points before she fouled out in the fourth quarter. Kelsey Mosley paced her with nine points before she too fouled out in the fourth. The game shifted once Burton was out as Bland County was up just two, 37-35, with 3:53 left. From there, the Bears outscored Narrows 11-3.
Narrows only trailed twice in the first three quarters. Mosley scored the opening baskets and Tiffany Perdue hit a jumper and a free throw to make it 5-2. Bland’s Kelsie Dinger then hit Alyssa Harris for a quick score before adding one of her own to give the Bears a 6-5 lead.
After giving the lead back to the Wave on a Mosley putback, Harris hit one of her two free throw attempts then Julia Davis scored off the offensive rebound to give Bland County their second lead of the game.
A Perdue jumper tied it at 9-9 as Narrows built a 14-13 advantage after the first. The game would stay close throughout the second as the Lady Wave took a 26-24 lead into the locker room.
“We didn’t do a good job in the first quarter attacking it,” Lambert said. “We were hesitant and second guessed ourselves. We had some turnovers and they capitalized on them.
“First half, they went to the free throw line more than we did. I though we were more physical and aggressive in the second half.”
Narrows jumped out to a 7-2 lead in the third as they build a 33-26 lead with 2:37 remaining. Paige Brinkley hit one her two threes from the corner to keep Bland County in the game. A minute later Brinkley hit a jumper with one second left to cut the Wave’s lead to 34-33.
With Narrows committing six fouls in the third quarter, the picked up their seventh earlier in the fourth which allowed the Bears to finish the game from the foul line.
Bland County made 15 of 18 attempts down the stretch to seal the victory.
“At Rural Retreat this year, we got beat by two or three and missed 17 free throws,” Lambert said. “I told them we’re going to start working our tails off. We had all week off and we ran a lot and shot a lot.
“We did a lot of that. We shot the better than we have been. The free throw line really made the difference.”
Brinkley led the Bears with 12 points. Morgan added nine while Jessie Blessing finished with eight, all from the line.
Bland County visits Grayson County on Wednesday night.
—Contact Jonathan Greene
at jgreene@bdtonline.com

At Bland High School
NARROWS (6-10)
Weatherly 2, Johnston 1, Perdue 8, Hagerman 6, Burton 10, Mosley 9, Taylor 2
BLAND COUNTY (10-6, 4-2)
Blessing 8, Morgan 9, Eaton 4, P. Brinkley 12, Harris 7, Dinger 6.
Narrows................................14 12 8 4 — 38
Bland County.......................13 11 9 15 — 48
3pt field goals: NAR none, BC 2 (P. Brinkley 2). Fouled out- NAR, Burton, Mosley.