Independence girls thwart Tiger rally

Fort Scott's Skyelar Brown dribbles between Independence's Hope Renfro (10) and Rindy Marquez during the first quarter of play Tuesday night at the FSHS gymnasium. Brown scored 10 points for the Tigers in a 60-49 loss to the Bulldogs. (Kenny Felt/Special to the Tribune)

Fort Scott High's girls made this Southeast Kansas League battle versus Independence interesting by the end of the third quarter Tuesday night. But the Bulldogs posted 15 of the first 17 points of the final stanza to take the steam out of the Tigers' rally and went on to win, 60-49.

Fort Scott (2-4 SEK, 4-9 overall) outscored Independence 13-4 in the third period. The Tigers scored the first 6 points on baskets by Skyelar Brown, Madison Cook and Ashley Cook to narrow the gap to 33-28 with 5:52 left in the quarter.

Free throws propelled the Tigers the rest of the quarter as the Tigers made 7 of 8 in the final 4 1/2 minutes with a pair by A.Cook closing the gap to two, 37-35.

But Kara McGrath made back-to-back 3-pointers for Indy (3-3, 9-5) to start the fourth. She made three in all during the quarter-opening run that eventally saw the Bulldogs' lead expand to 52-37 with 3:07 to go.

McGrath finished as one of four Bulldogs in double figures with 12 points while also handing out 5 assists and recording 8 steals. Hope Renfro and Kallie Smith each added 11 points while Aubree Lawrie finished with 10.

Emily Hale led the Tigers with 15 points and 9 rebounds. M. Cook finished with 11 and Brown and A.Cook each scored 10.

JUNIOR VARSITY -- Hale scored 10 points for Fort Scott in a 40-32 loss to Independence.

Tiger teams host Parsons Friday night with the girls' varsity contests set to tip off at 6 p.m. in the FSHS gymnasium.

INDEPENDENCE: Renfro 4-8 2-2 11, Marquez 3-8 1-2 8, McGrath 4-11 1-2 12, Hufferd 1-3 0-0 3, K.Smith 5-11 1-3 11, Lawrie 4-4 2-3 10, Schabel 2-5 0-0 5. TOTALS: 23-50 7-12 60.

FORT SCOTT: Torres 0-2 0-0 0, Brown 3-8 4-4 10, Westhoff 0-2 0-0 0, J.Denton 0-0 0-0 0, Allen 0-1 0-0 0, Hale 5-8 5-9 15, A.Cook 3-16 3-4 10, Dwyer 1-3 0-0 2, H.Denton 0-0 1-2 1, M.Cook 4-4 2-2 11, Reed 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 16-44 15-21 49.

Fort Scott................... 9 13 13 14 -- 49

Three-point field goals: Independence 7-23 (McGrath 3-9, Hufferd 1-2, Schabel 1-3, Renfro 1-4, Marquez 1-4), Fort Scott 2-11 (M.Cook 1-1, A.Cook 1-8, Brown 0-1, Dwyer 0-1).

Total fouls: Independence 17, Fort Scott 14. Fouled out: None.

Rebounds: Independence 26 (Lawrie 8), Fort Scott 36 (Hale 9). Assists: Independence 12 (McGrath 5), Fort Scott 4 (4 with 1 each). Turnovers: Independence 13, Fort Scott 22. Steals: Independence 14 (McGrath 8), Fort Scott 8 (A.Cook 4). Blocked shots: Independence none, Fort Scott 3 (M.Cook 2).