Priceville shakes off rough start to win title

By By Todd Thompson, Hartselle Enquirer
PRICEVILLE - After four years of waiting to win a girls’ area championship, it took Priceville’s girls just five minutes to break the Class 4A, Area 13 championship trophy.
The mishap didn’t diminish Priceville’s 68-57 victory over Fairview in the championship Saturday night. The Lady Bulldogs, who won the area’s regular season championship, had to overcome a four-point deficit in the fourth quarter to finally beat Fairview.
Keila Hamlin scored a game-high 27 points after hitting 12 of her 14 free throw attempts.
Melissa Johnson scored 13 points and Presley Darling finished with 10 points for the Lady Bulldogs.
The area championship was the first for the Lady Bulldogs’ program since the 2005 season.
Hamlin scored 10 of Priceville’s final 12 points to help the Lady Bulldogs stretch a 56-54 advantage to 11 points at the end of the game.
Priceville improved to 19-10 with the win. The Lady Bulldogs will host East Lawrence Thursday night in a sub-regional game.
Fairview’s Jazz Foust led the Lady Aggies with 13 points. Mandy House and Courtney Strong added 11 points each.
Priceville took control of the game early and led 17-10 at the end of the first quarter. But Fairview, taking advantage of several key offensive rebounds, moved in front 27-23 at the half.
With a bucket to open the second half, Fairview opened a 29-24 gap early in the third quarter. But Priceville kept the game close over the next six minutes.
Fairview held a 43-42 lead going into the fourth quarter and went on a 7-4 run that stretched the advantage to 50-46 with 4:40 remaining in the game.
Hamlin made two free throws and Johnson scored on a putback of a missed free throw to tie the game at 50-50.
Priceville finally regained the lead with 3:11 remaining in the game.
Fairview tied the game 30 seconds later with a bucket before Priceville pulled away with a 14-3 run.
Hamlin scored twice in a span of 20 seconds to make it 58-54 and the Lady Bulldogs never looked back.
Hamlin hit six straight free throws and McLendon added two more in the final minute of play to close out the win.
Amber Smith, Kaitlyn St. John and Jordan Crow were named to the all-tournament team.
Several Priceville players were also named to the all-area team, which was based on the entire season, including Hamlin, Chanel McLendon, Callie Cox, Darling and Johnson.