
Ella Clark searches for an open teammate from along the sideline.
Daron Barefoot|Sampson Independent
The Midway Lady Raiders returned to their home court Monday night, stepping out of conference play for a matchup against Spring Creek. The Lady Raiders dropped their first matchup against the Lady Gators, falling 47-44 in a tight battle on the road. This game unfolded just as tightly as the first, but at a much slower pace. When the final horn sounded, Midway claimed a 22-17 victory.
Just over a minute into the game, Spring Creek got the first points on a drive to the basket. For Midway, they weren’t having much success getting clean looks at the basket and shots off the mark as the early theme. Three minutes had passed and the score was still 2-0 but with 4:52 on the clock, Peyton Herring was headed to the free throw line. She went one-for- two on her foul shots, making it 2-1. After that, both teams continued their struggling pace as scoring was minimal. Herring missed a couple more free throws and the score was still 2-1 with 2:20 left in the first quarter. Finally at the 1:30 mark, Herring scored the Lady Raiders’ first field goal of the game to make it 3-2. Spring Creek, though, struck once more and the score was 4-3 at the end of the first quarter.
Things didn’t change very much in the second quarter with scoring pretty much nonexistent. The teams did swap one bucket apiece in the early going but scoring was a standstill from there. The Lady Gators got a layup in the lane as the half winded down and Herring also got a jumper to fall in, putting the halftime margin at 8-7 Spring Creek.
A made free throw by Katelyn Vann tied the game up at 8-8 at the onset of the second half and the score again came to a long rest there. A made free throw and a jumper from Herring put Midway ahead at 10-8 but the Lady Gators got a three-ball on the other end to go back ahead 11-10. Fouls started to pile up for Spring Creek, which gave the Lady Raiders more opportunities at the free throw line, but they couldn’t cash in. Shots repeatedly clanked off the rim as Spring Creek held a marginal lead. At the end of the third quarter, the Lady Gators led 13-11.
The Lady Gators scored a quick bucket at the start of the fourth quarter, pushing their lead to 15-11, but Kyleigh Stonerock nailed a baseline jumper to make it 15-13. Then, a putback by Stonerock tied the game back up at 15-15 with 4:00 to go. After Spring Creek made a layup to go back up 17-15, Kara Beth Benton made a three-pointer to put the Lady Raiders back out front at 18-17 with 2:55 to go in the game. The end of the game proved to be high-octane as Midway stretched things out. Benton made another jumper to make it 20-17 and then made a pair of free throws to push their lead to 22-17. With 40.7 seconds left, the Lady Raiders signaled for timeout to set up their endgame. After they came up with a steal, the Lady Gators never fouled to get the ball back and the final score held up at 22-17.
Benton led the scoring for Midway with nine and Herring had eight. Stonerock had four points followed by Vann with one.
The Lady Raiders are now 6-6 on the year and remain at 0-2 in conference play. They will hit the court again Friday when they travel to West Bladen.