Hartselle sophomore Moriah Taylor. | Caleb Suggs

Caleb Suggs

Hartselle Enquirer

It was certainly an exciting game when the Hartselle Lady Tigers travelled to Cullman to take on the Bearcats. Hartselle fell behind in the first half 31-19. However, it was in the second half when the game took an exciting turn.

Moriah Taylor opened the third quarter with eight points, which included two three pointers, to cut the lead to 36-31. Mathis added a three-point play and Billie Shelton tacked on two free throws to trim the lead to 41-40 at the end of the third quarter.

Cullman opened the fourth quarter on a 8-0 run but Hartselle answered with a 9-0 run of their own which ended with Taylor hitting a game tying three pointer with a minute and forty five seconds left in the game. Cullman took a 50-49 lead with under a minute to go which left Hartselle with enough time to get another score. The Tigers struggled to get open enough to score which forced head coach Gary Orr to call two timeouts. Finally, Senior Maggie Anderson got open enough to hit a three pointer to take the lead 52-50 with nine seconds left. However, Cullman tied the game with a buzzer beating shot to send the game into overtime.

The first overtime period featured little offense. The Bearcats took the lead 55-52 but Taylor tied it up with a three pointer at 55-55. However, she missed a game winning shot, which sent it into double overtime.

The Tigers finally found their bearings and outscored the Bearcats 8-2 in the overtime period. Taylor, Mathis and Lindsay Berry each had a free throw to ice the game as Hartselle won 63-57.

Taylor finished with an astounding 33 points including five three pointers. Mathis was the only other player to finish in double figures as she had 15. Berry finished with seven.