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AMERICUS – After their 56-42 loss at the hands of Tift County on Friday, the Sumter County Lady Panthers (SCHS) came into Saturday night’s home contest against Monroe (MHS) ready and poised for a victory over the Lady Tornadoes. They also came with a deadly weapon; the three-point shot. They were able to use that weapon repeatedly throughout the contest and it helped lead to a 63-46 victory over MHS.

In total, the Lady Panthers made 11 three-pointers, with five of them coming from D’Eria “Shay Shay” Clark.

“Shay Shay shot the ball well tonight. Jesstynie (Scott) had some good, open shots. I know we had a bunch of three-pointers,” SCHS Head Coach Sherri Harris. “We got a lot of stops along the way. Throughout the game, we made some great in-game adjustments.”

Scott led the Lady Panthers in scoring with 22 points, including three three-pointers and Clark scored 15 points, with all of them coming from beyond the arc.

The Lady Panthers jumped out to a 10-0 lead in the first quarter and eight of those points were scored by Scott. During this portion of the game, SCHS was playing outstanding half court defense and was limiting the chances the Lady Tornadoes had. However, late in the quarter, MHS went on an 11-5 run and cut the Lady Panthers’ lead to 15-11 by the end of the quarter.

Over the first couple of minutes of the second quarter, the Lady Panthers were able to push their lead back up to 10 at 21-11 thanks to back-to-back three-pointers from Clark and Scott. Scott would later get a steal and a basket in transition, prompting MHS to call timeout with 5:11 to go before halftime.

That timeout seemed to help the Lady Tornadoes, as they went on a run and cut the SCHS to 23-17, but with a little more than three minutes left in the half, Scott drilled another three-pointer to put SCHS up by nine.

Over the final minutes of the first half, both teams traded baskets and by halftime, the Lady Panthers had a 28-21 lead.

Over the fist three minutes of the third quarter, the Lady Panthers were able to go on a 5-0 run that was capped off with a three-pointer by Clark. During this portion of the game, the Lady Panthers were patient on offense and they were able to create turnovers on defense and turn them into points. They were also able to hit three-pointers, including one by Clark with a little more than a minute left in the third quarter. Shortly thereafter, Clark would hit another three-pointer to give the Lady Panthers a 46-33 lead with one final quarter to play.

With a double-digit lead, all SCHS needed to do in the fourth quarter was to continue to maintain their defensive intensity and be efficient on office. They did both of those things, so much so that they went on a 17-3 run to close out the game and earn a 63-46 victory.

Kie’Aundria Acree led the Lady Tornadoes in scoring with 20 points and Ciarra Lunsford scored 13 in the losing cuase.

In their 56-42 loss to Tift County the night before, both Scott and Clark each scored 14 points to lead the Lady Panthers.