South Harrison girls hoops tops Bishop LeBlond in Class 3 State Sectionals

(GOWER, MO) - The South Harrison girls basketball team fought off a tough Bishop LeBlond team in a back-and-forth battle to win 47-44 in the Class 3 State Sectionals and advance to the quarterfinals.

The game was tied at 32-32 headed into the fourth quarter but South Harrison kept composed and hit some late free throws that clinched the win.

Junior Ambrey Hunter led South Harrison with 19 points, followed by her older sister, senior Lexi Hunter with 9 points. For Bishop LeBlond, senior Rilyn Conard led the team with 18 points, followed by senior Ella Frazee with 13 and senior Katie Sego with 8 points.

"We knew coming into this game that it was gonna be tough. Bishop LeBlond's a great team. They've had a great, great season," said South Harrison senior Lexi Hunter. "They've played really tough teams all season long, so we knew that after all the competition that they faced, we knew that we had to come and we had to bring our game. We knew that definitely our speed and uh aggressiveness on defense would help a lot in that."

"Just kind of our game plan coming in was just to go at them. That's just kind of been our game plan all year is just go hard and go at them," said junior Ambrey Hunter. "We have to keep running our game and we know we have the game to get long and we know we can run up and down the court."

"I can't speak enough to the resiliency of our girls, the game was on the line and Ambrey stepped up and made some big free throws," said South Harrison head coach Kale Watson. "We were kind of in foul trouble, piecing people in and out. In games like this, it's going to take everyone stepping on the court and doing their job and I thought tonight we did that."

South Harrison improves to 20-7 on the season and will now face Lone Jack in the Class 3 State Quarterfinals on Friday, March 6th at 6 pm at Oak Park High School in Kansas City.

Bishop LeBloind finishes the season with a 14-14 record.