A six and a half minute dry spell doomed the Lady Bearcats in the semifinals of the 9th annual Bearcat Classic Thursday night resulting in a 53-44 loss to Dover.
It was 11-10 in favor of the Lady Bearcats with 29.4 seconds left in the opening quarter after a pair of Leigh Swint free throws.
The Lady Bearcats wouldn’t score again until Karmen Kent got a shot to fall with less than two minutes left in the first half. By then the Lady Pirates had built a 15-point lead.
The Lady Bearcats would trim the lead to 10 at 29-19 by halftime with Lexi Franklin and Carah Miller both hitting a 3.
Franklin (shown), who scored 21 to lead the Lady Bearcats, kept the host team within striking distance by scoring her side’s first nine points of the second half, and when Swint, who finished with nine, scored inside it was 39-30 with 1:41 left in the quarter.
A Layla Byrum 3 got the deficit to 10 with 7:09 to go and after Swint scored three on a free throw and a basket Kent scooped up a loose ball and scored to make it 45-38.
Dover promptly scored twice in 29 seconds and was back up by double digits and maintained no less than a nine point lead the rest of the way.
Franklin would account for the remaining Lady Bearcat points, all one at a time.
The Lady Bearcats will next play at 4:15 Tuesday in the Battle on the Border tournament in Arkoma, Okla. The Lady Bearcats are the top seed and will play the winner of the Arkoma-Union Christian game, which is set for Monday.
