HANCEVILLE, Ala. – Thursday night’s first varsity game at the county tournament featured a battle between the top-seeded Good Hope Lady Raiders and the fourth-seeded Lady Aggies of Fairview. Good Hope went into the locker room leading 29-14 at halftime and fended off a push from Fairview in the third quarter to secure a 51-35 win and advance to the varsity girls’ finals.
Davi Stidham hit a pair of free throws and Alexis Golden laid one in to give Fairview a 4-0 start in the first quarter, but Ella Gossett responded with a pair of baskets on the other end to tie the game at 4. Ava McSwain knocked down a three and Sophie Konrad scored inside to make it a 9-4 game later in the period. McSwain exchanged baskets with Darby Nichols to make it 11-6 but Lucie Adams drained a three just before the buzzer to give the Lady Raiders a 14-6 lead at the start of the second quarter.
McSwain drained a jumper and Adams buried another three to keep Good Hope ahead 19-8 early in the second. Whitney Quick sank a pair of free throws and Peyton Defoor laid one in to bring the lead down to 19-12 midway through the second quarter but after Jolee McHan scored inside, McSwain answered with another three to make it a 24-12 game. Konrad laid one in with less than two minutes to play in the half to help stretch the lead to 27-12 and Gossett scored in transition to put the Lady Raiders in front 29-12. Kailyn Redding hit a pair of free throws in the final seconds of the first half to make it a 29-14 game at the break.
Golden knocked down a three and Quick hit a pair of free throws to trim the lead to 31-19 early in the third. Baskets by Quick, Nichols and another three from Golden cut the lead down to just six at one point but Good Hope outscored Fairview 8-2 in the final two minutes of the period to take a 40-29 lead into the final frame.
A pair of McHan baskets helped stretch the lead to 46-31 early in the fourth and that put things out of reach for the Lady Aggies. Good Hope went on to win it 53-35 and will advance to play in the varsity girls’ championship game on Saturday.
McSwain led the Lady Raiders with 19 points in the win, followed by Adams with 10, Gossett with nine and Konrad with eight. Quick posted nine points in the loss, Golden added eight and Stidham finished with seven.
Good Hope will face the winner of (2) Vinemont and (3) West Point in the varsity girls’ championship game Saturday at 5:30 p.m.
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