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" I'm very disgusted with that," Bates said. "We didn't score but 11 points in the second half, and three in the fourth quarter. I don't know how many layups or easy shots we missed, but it was close to 20. You have to hit layups and free throws, but hat's off to Cedar Bluff. They kept clawing at us. I thought my girls played hard, but they didn't finish. It was very frustrating."

But there was one area Bates was proud of her Lady Wildcats (19-8): their defense.

They held the Lady Tigers' leading scorer Alexis Smith to just two points, and got out to a 12-3 advantage by the end of the first quarter. It wasn't until 2:59 left before halftime until someone other than Kyla O'Neal scored a point. Kallie Kilgro connected on two free throws to cut Sand Rock's lead to 22-9, which kind of opened things up a little offensively for the Lady Tigers (10-17).

"She (O'Neal) was the only person we had attacking the basket," Cedar Bluff coach Joe Carpenter said. "We needed more of that, and as the game progressed, we got more of that. Sand Rock made it a little rocky for us, but we got in there and fought and battled with them. It was a good game for us to have. It's against good competition, and to get better you've got to play good competition. They're ranked, and that's as good as it's going to get."

As Carpenter said, the Lady Tigers hung around. They trailed 32-24 at the end of the third quarter and whittled the Lady Wildcat lead to a single point at 34-33 on a rebound and putback by Smith on Kilgro's missed 3-pointer with 22.1 seconds remaining.

Sand Rock's Kirby DeBoard was fouled and sent to the line on the Lady Wildcats' ensuing possession for a 1-and-1 situation. DeBoard missed the free throw, which was rebounded by Cedar Bluff's Julianne Wilson. However, Wilson's pass up the court missed the outstretched arms of O'Neal, giving the ball back to Sand Rock with 11.8 seconds left.

Paige Norris inbounded the ball to DeBoard, who was fouled again and sent back to the free-throw line. with 5.8 seconds to go. This time, DeBoard made her first shot, but missed the second. Once again, Wilson came down with the rebound, but a pass up the court went out of bounds again with three-tenths of a second left.

"I'm proud of our effort," Carpenter said. "They played hard. We started off a little shaky, but then we regained our composure at halftime. We came back out and made a game of it, but it comes down to the little things. We've got to learn what to do in close games, and you only learn that by getting in close games. You can work on special situations in practice, but the same pressure is not there.

"We were fortunate to stick around long enough and made a game out of it. They're a really good basketball team. I was proud of how they eliminated the clutter. I was proud they hung in there and fought hard. They played good defense and got scrappy, and we need that heading into next week."

Bates said the Lady Wildcats "didn't deserve to win."

"It just was not a good night," she said. "Thank goodness we played defense because we couldn't get it to go on offense. It was just not happening tonight."

Haylie Pruitt led the Lady Wildcats with 13 points, seven rebounds, two steals and a blocked shot. Savannah Blackwell added eight points, 12 boards, an assist and a steal. Audrey Richardson contributed six points, 10 boards and four steals. DeBoard had five points, five steals, two rebounds and an assist. Norris finished with seven boards, four steals and a pair of assists.

Kilgro topped Cedar Bluff's scorers with 10 points. She also had four rebounds, three steals and three assists. O'Neal added seven points. Hannah Cosby had six points. Smith finished with eight rebounds and four steals to go along with her two points.

Boys

Sand Rock 58, Cedar Bluff 55

CEDAR BLUFF - The Sand Rock Wildcats built a 10-point lead in the third quarter, but had to withstand a late fourth-quarter run by Class 1A, No. 7 Cedar Bluff to escape with a 58-55 boys basketball victory Thursday.

"They're a good, strong team," Sand Rock coach Brian Mackey said of the Tigers. "We've got a little momentum now (heading into the Class 2A, Area 12 tournament). We're playing better, shooting the ball better and understanding our roles much better."

One of those role players new to the Wildcat varsity team is eighth grade guard Cade Ballenger. Ballenger finished the game with 10 points, including a pair of free throws that extended Sand Rock's lead to three with 11.9 seconds remaining following a 3-pointer by Cedar Bluff's Isaiha Jones that trimmed the Wildcat lead to 56-55.

"We're trying to get his feet wet at the end of the year," Mackey said of Ballenger. "He's stepped up and hit some shots for us. He gives us another shooter. He was in the mix there."

Cade Clark led the Wildcats with 19 points. Bradon Carver contributed 11 points. Carson Carver finished with seven points.

Sand Rock (8-18) built a 29-23 advantage heading into halftime and led 41-35 at the end of the third quarter before Cedar Bluff ( made one last-ditch effort for the win late in the fourth.

"Our MO (modus operandi) seems to be we get up on somebody, relax and let them come back," Carpenter said. " We did that Tuesday night (at Coosa Christian) and did that again tonight. Sand Rock kept fighting hard, kept chipping away at it, and once they got in front of us, they didn't quit. We came back out and put forth a better effort, tied the game up, but then relaxed and started the same thing again.

"You've got to give them (Sand Rock) credit. They played hard. They took it to us in the post pretty good. We helped them out several times by fouling them while they were taking shots, and they capitalized on that. It's not the effort we wanted tonight."

Keaton Kilgro led the Tigers (15-12) with 13 points, four rebounds and a pair of steals. Senior Rashawn Woods added 10 points and two steals. Jones contributed nine points, five steals, four boards, four assists and a blocked shot. Davion Fife and Ivory Starr both scored eight points. Fife also had three steals, two assists and two rebounds. Starr grabbed eight boards. Michael Croft finished with seven points, five rebounds and three steals.