SULPHUR — The shots weren’t falling for either the Sulphur Lady Tors or the Lafayette Lions Tuesday night.

It was left to Sulphur senior post Cierra Wilson to bridge the gap before the Tors put up a 20-point fourth quarter to edge Lafayette 41-37.

Wilson put up a team-high 16 points, 11 in the first three quarters, and grabbed 10 rebounds to lead Sulphur (16-5, 6-0). They needed every point from her as fellow senior leaders Taylee Kuykendall and Lauren Pace struggled with foul trouble and shooting, respectively.

The struggles were multi-faceted for Sulphur. Despite hitting the glass hard, both Wilson and Pace had 10 rebounds, they weren’t able to get putbacks either.

“They were playing a 1-3-1 (zone), they’re big and they’re quick,” Sulphur coach Helen LeFevre said. “We were struggling to even make passes over them. Being out of sync had a lot to do with that.

“(Wilson) and (Pace) have kind of taken turns carrying us this year,” she added. “We weren’t getting open looks on the outside, so we challenged our guards at halftime to get the ball inside.”

Neither team could find its mojo but still played the game back-and-forth. The lead changed 10 times before Kuykendall knocked down a pair of free throws with about 4 minutes left in the game to give the Tors the lead for good.

Sulphur hit 10 of 14 free throws in the final quarter after missing seven in a row spanning between the second quarter and the beginning of the fourth.

“I didn’t have to tell them (to hit free throws after the misses), they knew,” LeFevre said. “We’ve kind of been dealing with free throws, though we hit over 80 percent the last two games. They knew we had to hit them, especially when we started (running clock) and they knew they’d get fouled.”

Lafayette (12-7, 2-4) was led by Ramonie Shipmon, who scored a game-high 17 points while knocking down five 3-pointers.

(Kirk Meche/Special to the American Press)

Kirk MMeche