Second quarter proves to be the difference again for Lady Jays

The second quarter has been the achilles heel early in the season for the Guthrie Lady Jays basketball squad.

After building up a 13-7 first quarter lead over Class 4A’s eighth ranked Piedmont Wildcats, the lead went to the home school for good late in the second quarter as Piedmont pulled out a 49-42 win on Friday evening.

Guthrie falls to 0-2 overall while Piedmont improves to 3-2.

In the two games with El Reno and Piedmont, Guthrie has been outscored 26-12 in the second quarters alone. In the other three-quarters combined, the Lady Jays have a 1-point advantage (57-56).

In the opening quarter, Mikaela Murillo drilled a 3-point shot to give her team a 9-7 advantage to begin a 7-0 run to finish the quarter, but Piedmont returned the favor with their own 7-0 run to conclude the final 2:47 of the first half and held a slight advantage 19-18.

In the third period, Piedmont built their biggest lead to seven (27-20), but the Lady Jays got buckets from Murillo and Melinda Murillo to go along with two free throws from Cassiday Jones to pull within one, 27-26, with 3:05 left in the quarter.

Melinda Murillo added four more points in the third with each bucket tying the game before Piedmont hit one last field goal to take a 32-30 lead into the final quarter.

Piedmont never trailed in the final eight minutes, but Guthrie kept within striking distance.

With 48 seconds left in the game, Guthrie pulled with three, 45-42, with a Gracynn Smith free throw. However, they could not find another shot to fall and were force to foul and resulting in four made free throws to end the game.

Melinda Murillo finished with a team high 13 points and sister Mikaela Murillo finished with double figures with 10-points.

Up next, for the Jays, will be the home opener when they entertain the Harrah Panthers Tuesday evening. The game can be heard on Triple Play Sports Radio 105.1 FM and on Guthrie Sports Page. The pregame show begins at 6:15.

Guthrie Scorers: Melinda Murillo 13, Mikaela Murillo 10, Cassidy Jones 8, Gracynn Smith 7, Page Stevenson 4