Siegel won a trip Monday, squeaking out a three-point win over Lawrence County in opening round action of the Region 4-AAA girls basketball tournament.

The Lady Wildcats got nothing but a long trip home. Lawrence County, the three-seed from District 8-AAA, finished its season at 16-14.

The Lady Stars, now 26-8, scored on their first three possessions of the game and never trailed in their 40-37 win. They?ll play Shelbyville, a 40-37 winner over Cookeville, in Winchester Wednesday in the tournament?s next round.

?Wednesday will definitely be different for us,? said Siegel head coach Alan Bush. ?(Shelbyville) is very strong in the post. We?ll have to step up inside and rebound.?

Rebounding almost cost the Lady Stars their opportunity to play again this season.

?We didn?t rebound at all on the offensive end,? Bush said. ?We didn?t get to the glass.?

What Siegel did do was play tenacious defense for four periods.

?Lawrence County is very patient on the offensive end,? Bush said. ?Sometimes it seemed like we were on defense for five minutes at a time. We didn?t force many turnovers, but we made it difficult for them to get open looks and they made some mistakes with their shot selections.?

Carrie Parrott scored seven points of her team-high 14 in the first quarter to give the Lady Stars a 10-4 lead after one period.

The lead remained six at halftime.

After Anna Grace Gerhart hit a 3 with 4:14 to play in the third quarter to give the Lady Stars a seven-point lead, 24-17, Lawrence County called a timeout.

After the timeout, the Lady Stars dropped into a zone defense after playing a man-to-man defense most of the game.

?We didn?t want them to get comfortable with what they were doing so we were trying to show some different looks,? Bush said.

The Lady Wildcats used the opportunity to score six unanswered points and pull within a point as time expired in the third quarter.

Gerhart again put the Lady Stars in front by seven in the fourth period, but Lawrence County?s Ashley Moore, who played the last six minutes of the game with four fouls, managed to score eight of her game-high 16 points in that span to get the Lady Wildcats back into a one-possession game.

The Lady Wildcats had pulled back within a point when Morgan Faulkner went to the line with 22 seconds remaining.

?Those are my favorite (times to shoot),? she said. ?I just concentrate more.?

Her two free throws gave the Lady Stars a three-point lead, forcing Lawrence County to attempt a 3 at the buzzer that didn?t fall.

from the Tennessean.