Lady Panthers fall to Banks County 46-38

Blairsville, Georgia- The Union County Lady Panthers host the Banks County Lady Leopards in a region matchup. The Lady Panthers lost their previous meeting with the Leopards 47-39. The Lady Panthers are looking for their first region win of the season.

First Quarter

To begin the game, both teams had a hard time scoring, missing some open shots. Junior Rebekah Chambers got the Lady Panthers on the board scoring on a nice move in the paint. The Leopards responded, getting the offensive rebound and scoring. The Lady panthers responded quickly, breaking the press and finding Chambers as she took it all the way to the basket. The Leopards quickly responded as the Panthers couldn’t pick up the steal. The Leopards capitalized on a Panther turnover, scoring on a nice post move by Sophomore Kamryn Grier. The Panthers started turning the ball over as the Leopards capitalized and quickly took a 4 point lead. The Panthers offense stalled out as nothing was going in for the Lady Panthers. Junior Ava Hunter stopped the Panthers scoring drought as she scored to cut the deficit to 2. The Lady Panthers stole the ball and Chambers drew a foul as she went up for a layup. She scored both free throws and tied the game at 8. The Panthers trailed 9-8 at the end of the first quarter.

Second Quarter

The Leopards quickly got on the board as Sophomore Madison Adams hit a 3. The Lady Panthers were having better luck breaking the press in the game than they have in their past few games, which helps their offense tremendously. The Leopards extended their lead to 4 as the Lady Panthers went quiet offensively. Chambers responded with a nice move in the paint as she had a big first half. The Panthers quickly trailed by 6 as they were forcing the ball down the court which resulted in multiple turnovers. Sophomore Ellie Cook got the Panthers offense going out of the timeout with a nice euro step floater. Both teams went quiet offensively for a few minutes but Senior Hailey Seahorn hit a deep 3 to end the scoring drought for both teams. Freshman Addison Hoard hit a 3 to extend the Leopards lead to 9. The Panthers quickly responded as Freshman Lara Turner scored. The Lady Panthers trailed the Leopards 23-15 to end the first half.

Third Quarter

The Lady panthers had a nice start to the second half with a Ava Hunter block which turned into 2 points by Cook as she went behind the back and banked it in. The Lady Panthers scored quick again, breaking the press and Turner scoring. Chambers scored as the Panthers started the second half on a 6-0 run and cut the deficit to 2. The Panthers took the lead after a Cook 3, to extend the run to 9-0. The Leopards responded to take back the lead 25-24. Cook found Chambers down low as she threw a nice pass and the Panthers retook the lead. Cook was fouled on a 3 and made 2/3 free throws to take a 3 point lead. The Leopards cut the deficit to 1 after 2 made free throws by Grier. Grier made a layup after a Panther turnover to take a 1 point lead. After some nice ball movement by the Leopards, they took a 2 point lead as Seahorn made a midrange jumper. The Panthers quickly responded as Chambers scored. The Panthers trailed 32-31 at the end of a very tight 3rd quarter.

Fourth Quarter

To start the fourth quarter, The Lady Panthers got a steal but the Leopards stole it back and scored to extend their lead to 3. The  Leopards got another steal and scored again to take a 36-31 lead. The Leopards would later extend their lead to 7. Chambers responded with a nice reverse layup as the deficit was cut to 5. Turner was fouled and she made 1/2 free throws. Cook was fouled on a 3 and made 1/3 as the Panthers trailed 38-35. The Leopards responded and extended their lead back to 5. Hunter made a layup and made the score 40-37. The Leopards responded with another mid rage jumper as they were hitting the big shots when they needed them. The Leopards extended their lead after another made basket. The Panthers turned the ball over as Hunter stepped out of bounds. Hunter made a huge block that ended in Cook free throws as she was fouled while shooting. Cook made 1/2 to cut the deficit to 8. The Panthers fall to the Leopards 46-38 to fall to 2-8 on the season and 0-4 in region play. The Panthers host Elbert County on Friday in their last home game of the season.