Seconds away from a second loss of the season to the Caldwell County Lady Tigers, Lyon County turned to 8th grader Gracen Wynn for the biggest basket of the game. Wynn beat the buzzer with a layup to tie the game and force overtime, with the Lady Lyons going on to win 40-34 Thursday night in Princeton.
The victory is the third in four outings for the Lady Lyons, improving their record to 9-9 overall. The Lady Tigers slip to 8-11 on the year.
Points were hard to come by in the opening quarter, and the Lady Lyons led 7-6 after a bucket by Allison Murphy.
Rose Smith scored 6 in the second quarter, including a basket just before the halftime buzzer to give Lyon a 16-12 lead at the break.
The Lady Tigers opened the second half on a 9-1 run, capped by a jumper from Majah Hollowell for a 21-17 lead. Murphy responded with 4-straight for the Lady Lyons, trimming the lead to 1 at the end of the third quarter.
Bella McConnell scored down low to stretch the Caldwell advantage to 5 early in the final quarter. A jumper by Cathryn Brown cut the margin to 2 with just under 4 minutes to play, before she hit 2 free throws to once again cut the lead to 2 with 1:19 left. Over the final minute, the Lady Tigers had chances to seal the victory, but four times they missed the front end of 1 and 1 opportunities, leaving the door open for the Lady Lyons.
After Calista Collins fouled out, the Lady Lyons brought on 8th grader Gracen Wynn. After a final missed free throw, the Lady Lyons whipped the ball up the court and found Wynn under the basket. Her layup just beat the buzzer, forcing overtime.
Peyton Young drilled a 3-pointer, followed by 1 of 2 free throws from Jada Boyd for a 34-31 Caldwell lead with 2:25 left in overtime. After a layup by Brown, Smith hit a couple of free throws to give the Lady Lyons the lead for good. With less than 10 seconds to play and trailing by 4, Caldwell turned the ball over to effectively end the game. Brown knocked down 2 final free throws for the 6-point Lyon County win.
Murphy finished with 11 points and 9 rebounds for Lyon, followed by Smith with 10 points and Brown with 8.
Boyd scored 11 to lead Caldwell, with McConnell fouling out with 8 points and 8 boards, and Jacey Jaggers finishing with 8 and 7. Karsyn Parker pulled down 8 rebounds.
