Comings leads Granite to win in District opener

BUTTE – The Granite Lady Prospectors posted and opening round win over the lima Bears Thursday morning, 38-32, putting themselves into the semifinals of the District 12C basketball tournament. The game was held in the Maroon Activities Center in Butte, Montana.

The game opened with Granite pretty much getting what it wanted on shot selection, but only capitalizing on a few shots. The lower shot percentage allowed the seventh-place Bears to remains in the game and close trailing 9-8.

The second quarter saw the Lady Prospectors deploy a 2-2-1 press that produced results, with the locals circumventing Lima passes and turning them into easy buckets. The Bears still hung tight, trailing 17=14 at intermission.

After the break, Granite’s defensive pressure proved too much for Lima. The Bears made numerous turnovers that resulted in several easy baskets for the Lady Prospectors. The pressure was such that Lima could only manage five made free throws in the quarter without a made basket.

It wasn’t until 6:42 to play in the game that the Bears final got on the board with a bucket, but by then the lead had ballooned to 10 points and the game was out of reach.

Asha Comings led all scorers in the game with 25 points for the Lady Prospectors.

Reanna Crafton was the top scorer for Lima with eight.

Granite Junior Amelia Hill was conspicuous by her absence Thursday, not starting the game due to what a source said was a back injury. The Lady Prospector post player sat the bench with her team the entire game and was missed underneath on both ends of the floor.

Granite advances to the semifinals where they will play the winner of the Drummond vs Harrison-Willow Creek game that takes place at 12:30.

SCORING

LIMA – 8/6/5/13 – 32

GRANITE – 9/8/9/11 – 38

Lima – TMartinell 7, Bravo 7, MCrafton 4, MMartinell 6, RCrafton 8

Granite – Struna 2, Ward 7, Pitcher 2, Comings 25, Radtke 2