The Republic Lady Tigers fell behind by 21 points at halftime, and rallied furiously down the stretch, but fell to Mount Vernon 60-53 in the finals of the Lady Houn’ Invitational at Aurora.
Republic trailed 15-9 after one period, and Mount Vernon seemed to put the game away by outscoring the Lady Tigers 19-4 in the second quarter. But a driving layup by Jayme Sifferman cut the lead to 8 points with 1:24 left in the game. A 3-pointer by Payton Rayl and a free throw by Elle Aston eventually cut the lead to six. Republic had a chance to cut the lead further with about :25 remaining, but missed a 3-point attempt, and never got any closer.
Kenzie Williams had 30 points to lead all scorers for Mount Vernon. Jayme Sifferman led Republic with 14 points. Payton Rayl added 12, and Kayce Duvall and Kyra Ramsey had 9 apiece. Elle Aston scored 6, and Courtney Gardner added 3 for the Lady Tigers.
Republic is 2-1.