FAIRMONT – Fairmont scored the final 7 points of the game and defeated West Bladen 40-33 Monday night in a non-conference girls basketball Endowment Game.
Senior Laikyn Pait sank 2 free throws to tie the game 33-33 with 2:44left in the game, but Fairmont’s Destiny McMillian scooped up a loose ball and put in a lay-up at the 2:25 mark for a 35-33 Lady Tornado lead.
Fairmont’s Maya Bellamy threw in a 3-point shot – her only basket of the game – with 1:22 left that stretched the Fairmont lead to 38-33.
Kiara Page led the Lady Tornado scoring with 17 points. McMillian and Jermya Bethea added 6 points each.
Pait topped the West Bladen scoring with 9 points, and senior Akira Grimes followed with 8 points. Senior Logan Autry and sophmore Erica McKoy finished with 5 points each.
The Lady Knights built an early 9-4 lead as Autry, Pait and Grimes bombed in 3-point shots. Junior Patience Parker banked in a runner then flipped in a lay-up for a 13-6 West lead. Fairmont trimmed the margin to 13-10 at the quarter break.
Pait canned a free throw to begin the second period, and Autry grabbed a rebound and raced end-to-end for a lay-up and a 16-12 Lady Knight lead. Free throws by Pait and McKoy and a McKoy transition lay-up kept West Bladen up 20-16 at halftime.
Autry sent a pass to Pait on the baseline for a lay-up and a 22-16 lead one minute into the third period. Page knocked down a pair of 3-point shots and Bethea dropped in a lay-up as Fairmont went up up 24-22.
Grimes drilled in a 3-pointer to give the Lady Knights their final lead at 25-24. Fairmont hit 3 of 6 free throws, and Page delivered another 3-pointer for a 30-25 Lady Tornado lead.
Grimes pulled up for a 6-footer from the lane that kept West within 30-27 at the quarter break.
Junior Elizabeth Allbright converted a McKoy assist into a lay-up to begin the final period. McKoy nailed a 16-footer to slice the Fairmont lead to 32-31 with 5:28 left.
The Lady Knights missed the front end of three one-and-one free throws in the final period and only connected on 5 of 14 foul shots in the game. Fairmont was only 8 of 24 from the foulline. Thirty-five turnovers plagued the Lady Knight offense. Fairmont had 22 turnovers.
Pait led West Bladen on the boards with 7 rebounds. Autry followed with 6 rebounds, and Allbright and Grimes pulled down 4 rebounds each.
The Lady Knights are now 8-8 on the season and will host Four County Conference leader Clinton Thursday night.
West Bladen (33)– Conner Brisson, Erica McKoy, Patience Parker 4, Logan Autry 5, Indiyah Williams, Laikyn Pait 9, Jenna Dove, Elizabeth Allbright 2, Akira Grimes 8, Jerena Purdie.
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