Lady Mustangs lose thriller on last-second three

By Berklie Haag

On Saturday, January 6, the Gordon-Rushville girls basketball team traveled to Bayard to compete against the Tigers in an exhilarating basketball match-up. 

Early in the first quarter, the Bayard Tigers scored four unanswered points. The Mustangs took their first lead of the game when they scored 7 points in a row to have a score of 7 to 4. Throughout the rest of the first quarter, the score stayed fairly even. Going into the second quarter, Bayard lead 13-11. 

The first points of the second quarter were scored by the Mustangs. The teams scored back and forth for the first part of the quarter, but the Tigers opened up a 32-21 lead by scoring 19 points in respect to the Mustangs’ 10. 

The Mustangs began to cut away at the Tigers’ lead with a shot made by Sierra Garrett to start the third quarter. The Lady Mustangs outscored the Bayard Tigers 20 to 17 in the third quarter, but this was not enough to take the lead. 

The fourth quarter turned out to be a nail-biter for both teams and both sets of fans. The quarter began with a score of 49-41 in favor of Bayard. The first points scored was a three-point shot by Gracey Perez. This set the momentum for the Mustangs, and they began to work on dwindling the Tigers’ lead. With about 1 minute and 30 seconds to go, Jacobie Knight scored to tie the game at 55. The Mustangs scored with 34 seconds left to go up by two. Bayard’s Grace Burry pulled up and shot a three with 7 seconds to go in the game. Fans watched with racing hearts as the ball fell through the basket. Bayard had made a three-pointer to push their lead up by one. The final score was 58 to 57 in favor of the Tigers. 

Jacobie Knight was the top-scoring player for the Mustangs. She scored 21 of the Mustangs’ 57 points. Next down from her was Gracey Perez, who scored 11, and Sierra Garrett with 10.