STANTON - The Lady Buffaloes avenged an upset loss from early January in convincing fashion Friday night.
The hard-fought contest was close throughout, but Stanton pulled away late leading to a 47-39 victory over Coahoma and moved the Lady Buffs into a tie for first place in District 5-3A.
The evenly matched teams were ties at 13 following the first quarter and it was Stanton that took a marginal 28-26 lead at halftime.
The Lady Buffs went on a little run in the third quarter to increase their advantage to 38-32, but Coahoma rallied in the fourth to shrink the gap to one possession.
With just over a minute to go in regulation, Stanton’s Rylee Murry was fouled sending her to the foul line. She toed the charity stripe and knocked down both opportunities putting Stanton up by five.
As the seconds began to quickly click off the clock, Coahoma started losing its composure. The Bulldogettes would turn the ball over multiple times in the final minute and were forced to foul Stanton to keep the clock from running out.
The Lady Buffs hit two more free throws to clinch the victory.
In the previous meeting between the two teams, Coahoma was led by Madison Rodgers, Katelyn Johnson, and Shae Long for a combined 38 points. On Friday, Stanton’s defense held the trio to just 10 points.
Stanton’s Madeline Mathers finished with a game high 27 points and Shelby Phillips added seven. Ashley Hill tossed in six points while Victoria Solorzano scored four and Rylee Murry had three points.
Stanton finished the game 11 of 18 from the foul line and made two threepointers (Hill 1, Phillips 1) while Coahoma shot 7 of 12 and nailed four from downtown.
Stanton will wrap up the district schedule at home on Friday against Sonora at 6:00 p.m.