Misses from the line costly, East defeats Lady Camels

Gillette, Wyo.--The Lady Camels defense and lack of shots made from the free throw line in the last minutes of the game allowed Cheyenne East (18-3, 6-2) to come from behind to sweep the series between the Lady Camels (16-4, 7-2) in the regular season, The final was 57-56 from the Castle of Chaos.

It was a close game throughout, but Gillette had the lead for the majority of it. It was 14-10 in favor of Gillette after one and 28-26 at halftime.

Gillette had the lead at the end of the third quarter as well, but turnovers and the Cheyenne East offense kept the Lady T-Birds in the game.

With minutes to go and Gillette up 56-55, Julia Seaman was fouled as she tried to get the bucket in the paint. Seamans had two free throw attempts to pad the Lady Camels lead, but missed both. After the second miss, Elissia Johnson for the Lady T-Birds drove down the lane on the right side, cut into the baseline and put it in for two to give Cheyenne East the 57-56 lead. With less than 20 seconds to go, McCorra Ford drove it up the floor for Gillette. She tried to get it down low to Sierra Toms, but the Lady T-Birds surrounded her and got the ball with 4.5 seconds to go in the game.

Out of a Cheyenne East timeout, the Rachel Erickson was fouled and missed her one and one. It was rebounded by Gillette, but the Lady Camels couldn't get it to the basket in time as the game clock went to zero.

Unofficially, McCorra Ford had the game-high of 20 points. Rachel Erickson led the Lady T-Birds with 18 points.

The loss makes the game against Sheridan on Thursday even more meaningful for seeding going into the playoffs. You can hear the game on 97.3 KAML-FM and online at https://www.network1sports.com/station/kaml with the Shell Food Mart Pregame Show starting at 5:15pm.