Oak Ridge has a very young ball club, and they entered the Ladies Classic with a rare losing record, but they showed a lot of spunk in getting past Pulaski County from Dublin, Va., 71-64 Tuesday afternoon.
The Lady Wildcats, a perennial state power in girls basketball, has played a rugged schedule, including a trip to the Nike Tournament of Champions in Arizona, but they withstood a fourth quarter rally by Pulaski and chalked up another Classic victory.
Three times down the stretch Pulaski cut the deficit to two points, but each time Oak Ridge answered. The final time was at 63-61 with 1:45 left, but Oak Ridge got two free throws from Ayana Porter and two more clutch tosses from Semaj Clark to build the lead back to six and hold on for victory.
Clark led Oak Ridge (5-6) with 15, while freshmen Porter scored 14 and another freshman, Ze’Yana Stewart, netted 11. The Cougars (4-2) got 17 points from Ally Fleenor, 14 from Hannah Keefer and 10 from Keslyn Secrist.
Oak Ridge led 38-26 at halftime, but Pulaski stormed back to close to 50-46 heading down the home stretch.
PULASKI (64): Ally Fleenor 17, Russell 6, Hannah Keefer 14, Huff 7, Lawson 8, Keslyn Secrist 10, Vest 2.
OAK RIDGE (71): Johnson 9, Strickland 7, Ze’Yana Stewart 11, Ayana Porter 14, Semaj Clark 15, Cleveland 6, Hart 5, Green 5.
3-Point Goals: PHS—5 (Huff 2, Lawson 2, Secrist). OR—6 (Porter 2, Strickland, Stewart, Cleveland, Hart).
PULASKI 9 17 20 18—64
OAK RIDGE 14 24 12 21—71
