SPARTA — The winless Marion Harding Presidents threw a bit of a scare into the host Highland Scots on Tuesday.
In the end, however, Highland junior post Heather Thacker led a fourth-quarter surge, scoring 10 of her game-high 18 points, as her team cruised to a 45-37 victory in non-league action.
The Scots (2-4, 1-3 MOAC) broke out to an 8-2 lead early in the game. Harding stiffened on defense and took advantage of some Scots’ fouls to close the gap to 10-9. Junior wing Kira Hairston made a defensive grab, went the length of the floor and hit a bucket at the close of the first quarter to give her team an 11-10 lead.
“(Marion Harding has) a bunch of athletes on their team,” said Highland coach Betsy Morrison. “Those girls come out and play hard. I don’t think they took a play off the entire game. They come out and press you hard for 32 minutes.”
Guard Cassie Brown hit a 3-pointer to put the Scots back in the lead. Shayla Pierce fed Taylor Hankins on Highland’s next trip down the floor and the Scots widened their advantage to 15-11.
