Edinburgh’s Gracie Crawhorn boxes out GCA’s Adeline Jolley during Tuesday’s game.
Evan Nieswanger | For the Daily Journal
As the Class A rivalry game played out at Edinburgh on Tuesday night, it was clear that whoever was able to keep their offense going between the Lancers’ Gracie Crawhorn and Greenwood Christian’s Sydney Waldron was going to come out victorious.
And with Waldron fouling out in the fourth quarter, Crawhorn and her team came out on top, defeating the Cougars 44-38.
“We have to have Grace on the court,” decade-tenured Edinburgh head coach Amy Macy said. “We’ve got to keep her out of foul trouble and she’s realizing that. That’s one thing that she’s learned this year.
“She shot a lot from the outside today, but she did look to get inside more to take it inside and get on the boards. …She’s learning what we need.”
The first quarter was competitive, but the Lancers (4-6) remained ahead with an 11-8 lead, not trailing all quarter. The teams largely struggled to get into their halfcourt sets, with an abundance of turnovers. GCA (1-7) found more luck in the second quarter, taking the lead with 5:12 remaining in the half, but Edinburgh and Crawhorn battled back for the lead, tying the Cougars three times before Crawhorn hit the final shot of the half to give the Lancers a 23-21 lead.
Crawhorn was Edinburgh’s primary offensive creator, contributing five points in the first quarter and nine in the second quarter. Lauren Petersen kept GCA afloat in the first half with three makes from beyond the arc.
Waldron, who finished with 14 points, cashed in on a 3 with 4:45 remaining in the third quarter and tied the game up at 29-29 a minute later with a basket.
The Lancers pulled ahead in the fourth with the help of a strong supporting cast in the fourth. Bella Turner added five points while Kenna Streeval and Cloee Britton each put three on the scoreboard in the period, edging out a GCA offense that sputtered once Waldron went to the bench.
Streeval totaled 10 points in the win. Petersen and Adeline Jolley each finished with nine points for the Cougars.
First-year GCA coach Tiffany Smith-Clements was happy to use her second same-class game as a measuring stick to see how the Cougars stack up.
“Edinburgh has a solid program,” Smith-Clements said. “They’re young too. But it was good; a good competition for us to see kind of where we are with 1A. We’ve been playing out of our class most of our games, so it kind of gives us an idea of where we stand with the other 1A schools. I’m really happy that we stayed with them the whole time and I feel good about that. We’re making some progress. The younger girls are learning, and we pressed the entire game and had some success, so I think we walked away a better team.”
