STURGEON - The No. 2 seed South Callaway Lady Bulldogs outscored the No. 7 seed Westran Lady Hornets 7-5 in overtime to avoid a first-round upset with a 58-56 win at the 32nd-annual Sturgeon Tournament on Monday night.
South Callaway sophomore forward Adrian Mann hit three free throws near the end of overtime to tie the game at 56-all. Mann's free throws were followed by a Westran turnover, which the Lady Bulldogs converted into the winning basket.
"Adrian has a high free-throw percentage and she's the one you want on the line." Lady Bulldogs head coach Darren Humphrey said. "It worked out well."
South Callaway (11-4) trailed 10-9 after the first quarter, but outscored Westran 16-13 in the second quarter to hold a narrow 25-23 edge at halftime. The Lady Bulldogs led 39-38 after the third quarter and the game was even at 51-all at the end of regulation.
"We came out kind of sluggish in the first quarter and did not play up to our expectations whatsoever," Humphrey said. "We couldn't hit shots, which isn't something that's typical for us.
"We're going to take this win as a way to look at rebuilding some of the things we need to do."
Mann paced South Callaway with a game-high 25 points. Junior center Konnor Arrowood tallied 13 points and junior forward Nicole Horstman provided nine.
Cory Burton topped Westran with 21 points and Maddy Denslow supplied 12.
The Lady Bulldogs meet No. 6 seed Paris in the semifinals at 7:30 tonight in the high school gym.
"They (Paris) are a super-fast team and we're going to have to do something to offset that a little bit so we can get our offense going," Humphrey said.