The Grace Christian School Rams of Knoxville held off Cherokee in a 55-53 thriller Friday night.
Abby Roberts dropped in 17 points for Grace, while Nya Burns chipped in with 15 including four 3-pointers. Logan Connatser scored 11, and Myrah Hood hit double figures in rebounds with 11.
The freshmen duo of Kenady Deal and Rylee Sivert were top guns for the Lady Chiefs (12-3) with 21 and 18 points respectively. They both played all 32 minutes of the game for Cherokee. Grace led 24-19 at intermission and built their lead to as many as 13 points in the third quarter at 42-29. But Cherokee staged a rally behind the two dynamic freshmen as Deal and Sivert accounted for all the Chiefs fourth quarter scoring. A rebound putback by Sivert at the 4:07 mark had the Rogersville squad down by only 45-42. Grace’s Abby Roberts and a 3-pointer by Logan Connatser were clutch buckets for the Rams as they answered the rally.
A 3-pointer by Deal with eight seconds to go got it back to a one possession game at 53-50, but two free throws by Roberts iced the outcome.
Grace Christian (55): Lee 1-2 2-3 4, Nya Burns 5-16 1-1, 15, Abby Roberts 6-12 4-7 17, Bradley 1-3 0-0 3, Tchanga 1-2 1-3 3, Hood 1-4 0-1 0, Logan Connatser 4-7 0-0 11 Butler 0-1 0-0 0, Pangratz 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS; 19-47 9-14 55.
Cherokee (53): Nelson 3-3 0-0 7, Kenady Deal 7-12 3-3 21, Rylee Sivert 8-15 2-2 18, Lawson 3-9 1-2 7, Pearson 0-2 0-0 0, Coward 0-1 0-0 0. TOTALS: 21-42 6-7 53.
3-Point Goals: GC—8 (Burns 4, Connatser 3, Roberts). Ch—5 (Deal 4, Nelson).
Score by quarters:
Grace Christian 10 14 18 13–55
Cherokee 8 11 12 22–53
