Carthage girls fall to 3-5 after loss to Ray-Pec

Dec. 21—Carthage trailed the Panthers of Raymore-Peculiar by 9 points at halftime.

A stubborn defense held Ray-Pec to just 5 points in the third quarter and the Tigers were able to tie the game before the fourth quarter.

But the Panthers used their highest-scoring quarter to pull away for the 49-42 win at Carthage.

"The girls battled hard tonight, there's no questioning our effort against a talented Ray-Pec team," Carthage head coach Scott Moore said. "If a few more of our shots roll in, instead of just roll out, that game has a different ending."

The Tigers (3-5) were paced offensively by Lauren Choate and Lexa Youngblood in double figures. Choate finished with 16 points and earned 8 of them at the free throw line on 10 attempts. Youngblood added 15 and went 7 of 10 on free throws.

"Lauren Choate and Lexa Youngblood were the offensive sparks tonight for us. They did a great job of attacking the basket to score or draw fouls," Moore said. "Each of them shot 10 free throws with the added benefit of getting a couple of Panther players in foul trouble."

Raymore-Peculiar (8-4) was able to use a 10-0 run in the last three minutes of the second quarter to push ahead for a 28-19 lead at intermission.

"We outplayed them the other 29 minutes," Moore said. "The lesson we need to learn from this is that it takes a full 32 minutes to beat a good team."

Sophie Terry scored 20 for Ray-Pec and Sarai Clark added 15.

Carthage is back in action on Wednesday at Drury University as it takes on Kickapoo (7-1) at 11 a.m. in the Pink and White Tournament.