The Rising Sun Lady Shiners captured the Speedway Tournament championship with a 50 to 48 win over the host Sparkplugs on Thursday, Dec. 28th.
Senior Lucy Carrigan evened her season high of 30 points including the game winner with 4.6 second left.
It was a game that saw seven ties and eight lead changes
The game’s two leading scorers Carrigan and Hannah Lindsey guarded each other until Carrigan picked up her fourth foul with 4:13 remaining. Speedway then worked to try and get Rising Sun’s leading scorer to foul out and Coach Abby Friend put Sydney Pitts on Lindsey.
The Sparkplugs jumped out to a 15 to 7 lead on back to back 3-pointers and led by as many as 10 after a step back 3-pointer by Lindsey.
Freshman Maddi Wilson scored and a Carrigan 3-pointer cut the lead in half, 18 to 13, after one quarter.
The Shiners evened the score with a basket by Kinsey Price and a steal by Price led to a Carrigan fast break where she was fouled. Wilson buried a 3-pointer to tie it at 22.
Rising Sun had the biggest lead of the game, 26 to 22, after a Carrigan basket and steal followed by a Wilson jumper.
However, the hot shooting 3-point Sparkplugs regained a 30 to 28 halftime lead on a second 3-pointer by freshman Maddie Barnes.
Rising Sun went up 32 to 30 on a pair of baskets by Danyka Groover including one off an assist from sister Saige.
The Shiners led 36 to 35 headed into the final eight minutes.
Wilson scored her career high 11th point to open the third quarter.
Junior Danyka Groover (who struggled at the free throw line in the opening round game) gave Rising Sun a 43 to 42 lead with a pair of free throws but Speedway regained the lead behind Lindsey.
Carrigan tied the game at 45 off an assist from Wilson.
Carrigan then went 3-for-4 at the line put RS up three with :42 left only to see Lindsey bury her sixth 3-pointer of the game for a final tie at 48.
Carrigan knifed her way to the basket with the game winner with 4.6 left then sealed the win with a blocked shot.
Carrigan led all scorers with 30 including 13-for-15 at the line. Wilson finished with 11 (5-for-6 from the field). Danyka Groover added six points and 10 boards. Price had two and first game hero Pitts added one while grabbing five boards and four deflections. Sydney Bostic had three boards.
Lindsey finished with 24 points with 10 in the fourth quarter. Barnes had 20.
The difference was the Shiners were 16-for-21 at the line to just 5-for-10 for Speedway.
Rising Sun improved to 6-8 on the season while Speedway fell to 7-8.
It was Rising Sun’s second Speedway title in three years.
Rising Sun was scheduled to return to action against Lawrenceburg in the opening round of the River Town Classic on Wednesday.
The Deaf School defeated North Putnam 43 to 33 in the consolation game.