A 19-point, 20-rebound effort from senior Sarah Sutton helped the Allen County-Scottsville Lady Patriots defeat the Greenwood Lady Gators 47-37 on January 22 at Greenwood. However, Sutton wasn’t the only Lady Patriots making big contributions.
Senior
Mason Towery provided the spark early, scoring 10 of her 12 points in the first
half to help AC-S overcome an early deficit. Sophomore Taylor Carter also
contributed, finishing with 10 points. Freshman Chloe Cook struggled to score
but just missed a double-double in rebounds, finishing with nine
rebounds---part of a night in which AC-S grabbed 45 boards to out rebound
Greenwood by 17.
“Greenwood is a lot better than what we saw at home,” coach Greg Dunn said. “I knew it would be a tough game.”
Greenwood open the contest strong, building a 12-7 lead after the first eight minutes. The Lady Patriots responded with a 16-6 second period to carry a 23-18 lead into halftime---despite a solid effort by a talented sophomore player for Greenwood.
“Jacqueline Jackson had 10 first half points so we talked about keeping the ball away from her,” Dunn added. “Jae (McReynolds), Mason (Towery), and Kaylee (Bullington) did a good job on her in the second half. That was huge for us. Jackson finished with 12 points.”
AC-S---or perhaps more applicably Sutton---outscored Greenwood 12-10 in the third period. Going on the attack, Sutton was virtually unstoppable around the basket. In addition to her 12 third-quarter points, the senior also grabbed eight rebounds in the eight minutes of action.
“Sarah had 20 rebounds (in the game) and was getting hammered time-after-time as the game was allowed to be played very physical,” Dunn noted. “She never got upset. She got rebound after rebound and going up and battling. She such a competitor who loves to compete.”
Leading 35-28 lead after the third period, AC-S was able to maintain a late charge from the Lady Gators. Free throws---12 of 13 shooting from the line in the final half---from Towery, Sutton, Bullington, and Cook enabled the Lady Patriots to withstand Greenwood’s run and pull away for a 47-37 victory.
The Lady Patriots were 15 of 45 from the floor in the game (33.3%) but finished the night 16 of 19 (84.2%) at the line. The Lady Gators (10-10) equaled AC-S in free throws (15-53) but was just five of 10 at the line.
Sutton’s 20-rebound effort---including eight coming on the offensive end of the court---is believed to be the single game rebound record for Lady Patriot basketball. Rebounding stats on a game-by-game status are not available before 2005. However, what is known is that Sutton’s final total surpassed an 18-rebound effort by Savannah Gregory against Russell County in 2014. Her 19 points to go along with the rebounds does mark the 30th time Sutton has finished with a double-double.
AC-S (15-5) hosts Monroe County (3-14) Friday night---the first of back-to-back district games. Glasgow (14-7) will come to Patriot Gym on Monday night. Currently, Glasgow is atop of the District standings followed by Barren County and AC-S. If Glasgow loses this week to Monroe County and AC-S defeats Monroe County and Glasgow, a three-way tie would occur in the District. If Glasgow defeats Monroe County this week, Glasgow will clinch the top spot in the district leaving AC-S to face Barren County in the first round of next month’s District championship tournament at Monroe County.