Lady Falcons Clinch District 3-AA Title

Fulton's Lewis hits a winner (KNS Article)

Guard Jasmine Lewis upped her intensity down the stretch - just in time for Fulton High School.

The senior led the Lady Falcons to a comeback 45-43 victory against Seymour (15-5) to claim first place outright in District 3-AA on Friday.

Lewis hit a jumper with four seconds left to break a 43-43 tie for Fulton (16-6).

Seymour had time for one more shot, but guard Ashleigh Elliot's attempt was blocked as time expired.

The Lady Eagles had the lead the entire game until the final possession.

Lewis finished with 20 points, including 18 in the second half, and her team's final 13 points in the third quarter.

Fulton coach John Fisher said the plan was to go to Lewis.

"She is a really tough player, we wanted to give her the ball and she came through," Fisher said.

Up five with 3:30 left, Seymour tried to play keep-away to run the clock out. After a possession lasting over a minute, the Lady Eagles' Tiffany Miles was called for an offensive foul.

With the ball back, Lewis went to the basket immediately, scored and drew a foul.

Seymour had several costly mistakes down the stretch. A turnover with 50 seconds left allowed Fulton to tie the game at 43. On the ensuing possession Seymour was fouled but missed both free throws setting up Fulton's game-winning shot.

Lady Eagles Fall in Last Four Seconds (Seymour Herald)

The Lady Eagles led most of the game, and if they could have held on four seconds longer, would still be in contention for first place. Instead, the Falcons stole the lead in the final seconds at 45-43 and the Lady Eagles never got a chance to get it back, making Fulton the district champions.

Seymour had a substantial lead at the half, winning 23-14. With only 1:33 to go in the game, they were still winning by 6 points, but turnovers and fouls would plague the Lady Eagles in the final 90 seconds, as they had for most of the fourth quarter.

The Falcons tied it up off of two foul shots with 43 seconds left in the game. They were excellent from the line in the fourth quarter, hitting nine out of 10 free throws. Conversely, Seymour only hit two of seven in the fourth quarter.

Fulton pulled ahead with four seconds to go, and despite their best efforts, Seymour could not get a shot off before the buzzer.

"Bottom line is this, Fulton hit their free throws and we did not. We would have won the game if we hit free throws in the fourth quarter," said Coach Andy Rines.

"We're not going to go as far as this team has potential to go if we do not do a better job of knocking down free throws," Rines continued. "It's got to get better or we're in trouble."

However, despite being disappointed with his team's free throw shooting, he thought they played hard. "I thought our effort was great. I can't fault our effort. We played very hard. Fulton is an outstanding team and Jasmin Lewis is a great high school player- very difficult to defend."