“It weren’t purdy,” but it was a win.

Massac County’s Lady Patriots overcame a slow and sloppy start to post a thrilling 45-41 win against Bethalto Civic Memorial (BCM) Monday night, Feb. 18, in that faraway post of Waterloo.

The 150-mile journey up Route 3 in a driving rain was made worthwhile by the girls’ determined effort.

Massac started like they were in quicksand falling behind 14-7 at the first juncture. BCM’s unusually methodical offense seemed to mesmerize Massac County as the girls missed a couple of point blank shots and turned the ball over way too much.

BCM’s Brittany Zipprich dropped a pair of triples on the ladies and one from just inside the arc while their tall front line had little trouble scoring when they finally decided to make a move toward the basket and the Lady Eagles held a six-point lead at half.

After a poor start, Gracyn McBride strapped her teammates on her back and went to work in the third quarter.

The sophomore scored 10 of her 12 points in the crucial third frame with a pair of three-pointers and two more two-pointers.

McBride was to come up big one more time with 38 seconds left in the game. But the third quarter, she rallied the troops and put a little doubt in the highly partisan crowd in the Waterloo gym.

When BCM scored the first bucket of the second half the lead stretched to eight for the Lady Eagles and with their ultra patient style of play that eight-point lead looked a lot bigger.

But with McBride torching the Lady Eagles with her 10 points and every one of her teammates scoring as well, the Lady Patriots outscored BCM 18-13 in the quarter to trim the lead to one at 38-37.

Kaylee Childers also drained a triple in the big quarter and Jessie Douglas, Emily Hoard and Lauren Bunting all chipped in with a bucket to fuel the comeback.

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