RISON – Kelsi Mack's free throw with just a few seconds left made it two-possession game as the Woodlawn Bears survived a torrid fourth-quarter comeback by the Rison Lady Wildcats Friday night to come away with a 45-41 victory in a key 8-2A conference matchup inside the Rison Gym.
Woodlawn led by as many as 19 points in the third quarter and was up 38-23 to start the final period when the Lady 'Cats suddenly came to life after failing to score in the second quarter.
The two teams exchanged a couple of buckets apiece to start the fourth quarter as the Lady Bears were up 42-27 with a little more than 5 minutes left when Rison's Charmira Crain made a layup to make it 42-29, leading Lady Wildcat Coach Cicely Greene-Simpson to call a timeout with 4:54 left.
Crain then followed with a couple of free throws and Destiny Lea drilled a 3-pointer and suddenly the Lady 'Cats had cut the deficit to single digits, 42-33. The Rison onslaught continued from there as Carlese Johnson scored down low and Lea followed with a couple of steals that led to some easy layups to make it a one possession game, 42-39, with about 3 minutes left.
But the rally seemd to lose its steam at about that point. The Lady 'Cats had a couple of open looks for a 3-pointer that would possibly tie the game, but the shot was off the mark.
Woodlawn, meanwhile, finally seemed to regain its footing after sustaining the Lady Wildcats' furious comeback bid. Kathryn Dixon made a free throw to push it back to a two-possession game, 43-39, and Anna Fitzgibbon added another freebie to push it to a 44-39 advantage.
Rison's Addison Holland then hit a couple of free throws to make it a three-point game, 4441, but that was as close as it would get. The Lady 'Cats were unable to convert on a couple of free throws with 51 seconds left that could have made it a onepoint game, and Mack then hit her free throw with less than 10 seconds remaining to essentially sea...
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