On Thursday, the Marshall County Tigerettes let a victory slip through their hands when they squandered a 17-point third quarter lead en route to suffering a heartbreaking 51-50 road loss to the Huntland Lady Hornets.

Marshall County held a 27-10 lead early in the third quarter and appeared to be in complete control of the contest before Huntland (4-1) came storming back and tied the game at 35-35 with 6:25 left in the fourth period.

The Tigerettes (1-6) then pulled back ahead 50-45 late in the fourth quarter, but MCHS was unable to keep the Lady Hornets at bay down the stretch, as Huntland ended the game with a 6-0 run, capped by a Tara Cates layup with :07 left, to pull out the improbable one-point win.

Few 3s

Hindered by a 2-of-10 effort from three-point range, MCHS shot just 37 percent (21-of-57) from the field overall. The Tigerettes did outrebound the Lady Hornets 39-29 and held a 17-10 edge on the offensive glass, but were hamstrung by 23 turnovers.

Allison Hargrove led Marshall County with a game high 16 points on 7-of-13 shooting to go along with 11 rebounds and three steals. Zachuriya O'Neal followed Hargrove with eight points, while Kiya Morris, Alexis Ford, and Mecia Reed tallied six points apiece. Britni Davis (three points), Taianda Hutton (two points), Christy Pettigrew (two points), and Kemesha McFall (one point) rounded out the scoring for MCHS.

Although Huntland shot only 34 percent (16-of-47) from the floor and made just 4-of-22 three-point attempts, the Lady Hornets attempted 17 more free throws (30-13) than the Tigerettes and outscored Marshall County 15-6 at the foul line.

Point guard Ali Golden paced three Huntland players in double figures with 15 points, while Cates carried the Lady Hornets during crunch time by scoring 10 of her 13 points in the fourth quarter. Holly Wortman notched 11 points for Huntland as well.

Promising start

The Tigerettes got off to a promising start and raced out to a 12-2 lead late in the first quarter with the help of six points from Hargrove and four points from O'Neal.

Golden hit one-of-two free throws to trim the deficit to 12-3 at the end of the first period, but Marshall County began the second quarter with an 8-2 run behind four points from Hargrove to open up 20-5 advantage.

After the Lady Hornets outscored MCHS 5-2 over the next four minutes to narrow the gap to 22-10, Davis buried a trey late in the half to give the Tigerettes a 25-10 lead at the break.

Ford then scored on a layup at the start of the third quarter to push Marshall County's lead to 27-10 before Huntland responded with a 14-5 spurt to whittle the deficit to 32-24.

Reed drilled a three late in the third period to stake the Tigerettes to a 35-24 advantage, but the Lady Hornets ripped off 11 straight points to knot the game at 35-35 early in the fourth quarter.

Charging ahead

Marshall County outscored Huntland 13-7 over the next 4:35 on the strength of six points from Hargrove and four points from Ford to pull ahead 48-42 before Golden hit three-of-four foul shots to close the gap to 48-45.

After Pettigrew made a layup to push MCHS lead to 50-45 with :55 remaining, the Lady Hornets sliced the deficit to 50-49 with :10 left thanks to two free throws and an offensive put back by Wortman.

Following a timeout, Cates stole the Tigerettes' inbounds pass and scored on a layup to put Huntland up 51-50 before Marshall County threw the ball away on their final possession.