Kerrville Tivy raced to an 8-0 lead in the first three minutes and Belton never recovered as the Lady Antlers chalked up a 56-47 victory Tuesday night at Tiger Gym.
Tivy made four of its first five shots while Belton went 0-for-6 during the same stretch, and that was all the breathing room the Lady Antlers needed.
“The first three minutes cost us the game,” Belton coach Randy Bell said. “Our shots didn’t go in and Tivy’s did. They’re a great shooting team, so you can’t spot them eight points and hope to win.”
The Lady Antlers (19-2), ranked No. 3 in Class 4A by the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches, shot 46 percent (20-of-44) on the night compared to 29 percent (16-of-54) by the Lady Tigers (11-8).
“We try to come out in the first few minutes of the first quarter and the first few minutes of the third quarter and take teams out of their game,” second-year Tivy coach Stephanie Gamble said. “We did that for the most part tonight.”
Belton’s fate wasn’t completely sealed after the first few minutes, but it took everything the Lady Tigers had to muster a few runs. And every time they did, the Lady Antlers responded.
A pair of 3-pointers by Blair Heitmiller in the final minute of the opening quarter were answered by three consecutive 3s from Tivy’s Jacqueline Overby.
Midway through the second period, Belton’s Julianne Spoor dropped in five straight points to close the gap to 22-20. The response was another 3-pointer by Overby, who hit five on the night and finished with a team-high 17 points.
“After the first few minutes, I thought we played pretty well,” Bell said. “We kept mounting runs, but they kept hitting big shots.
“We might not play another team that shoots the ball as well as they do, so other than the first few minutes I’d take this effort again from our girls.”
After trailing 30-24 at halftime, the Lady Tigers made one final push in the third quarter.
Tivy stretched the margin to 34-26 before Belton put together a 10-0 run to take its only lead of the night at 36-34 with 2:57 left in the third.
Heitmiller, who posted a game-high 18 points, nailed her fourth 3-pointer of the game to start the rally.
