Lady Indians close strong in win

Gaffney girls varsity basketball coach Matt Gibson talks with his team during a timeout. In the end, the Gaffney Lady Indians gave their fans plenty to smile about in their 61-51 win over Lancaster on Friday.

Lancaster battled back from a 35-24 halftime deficit to take a one-point lead over Gaffney with 4:56 remaining. After several lead changes, Gaffney's Shelise Ratchford hit the go-ahead basket and Tiarra Morris had a critical 3-point play to give the Lady Indians a 55- 51 lead with 1:31 remaining.

Gaffney closed the fourth quarter on a 10-2 run to win its second straight game under first-year coach Matt Gibson.

"We played hard. We played very well for stretches but have a tendency to close down for three to four minutes," Gibson said. "We are working on getting our players to stay focused mentally and physically the whole game, especially defensively."

Gaffney led most of the game and had its largest lead at 23-9 with 5:55 remaining in the second quarter.

Lancaster charged back behind the 3-point shooting of Latoya McCoy, who led all scorers with 23 points.

The Lady Bruins made several runs at Gaffney, but didn't take their first lead until a McCoy basket gave Lancaster a 48-46 lead with 5:16 remaining.

Gibson sent Doristine Norris back into the game with four fouls. From there, Norris and Ratchford's inside scoring and a tighter fourth quarter defense keyed the Lady Indians late run to victory.

Breanna Watkins led Gaffney (4-8, 1-4) with 16 points. Ratchford scored 14 points and Norris had 11 points. Morris added 10 points.

The Lady Indians travel to Hillcrest on Tuesday.