MONTICELLO — Florence and Lawrence County split a Division 6-4Abasketball doubleheader at the LCHS gymnasium Tuesday night. TheLawrence County girls defeated Florence, 53-37. In the varsity boysgame, Florence held off a late Cougars rally to win 47-43.

The Lady Cougars won despite turning the basketball over awhopping 29 times in the 32-minute game. LCHS outscored Florence29-12 in the second and third quarters, and that proved to be thedifference in the game.

Fiere Brown led Lawrence County with 20 points, 18 of them comingin the second half. Brittney Collins added 10 points, 9 rebounds,and 5 steals. Kahatara Taylor had a game-high 9 rebounds to goalong with her 7 points.

Florence had only 4 players who scored in the game, led by JasmineTrigg, who had 13 points. Jessica Brown added 10.

Vicki Rutland’s Lady Cougars improved to 5-10 with the win, and 1-2in Division 6-4A play. The Lady Eagles fell to 3-10 overall, and0-3 in the division.

Florence 47, Lawrence Co. 43

The boys game had just one storyline: For three quarters, LawrenceCounty simply couldn’t make a basket. In the first 3 periods, theCougars made just 6 of 35 field goal attempts, despite getting manyof the shots Coach Preston Wilson wanted. The Cougars scored morepoints in a frantic fourth quarter than they had in the firstthree, but a valiant comeback effort fell just short.

Lightning-quick guard Ken Jones led Florence with 18 points. TheEagles improved to 6-6 with the win, and 1-2 in the division.

Lawrence County was led by Cazlyn Peyton, who had 9 points and 4rebounds. All 9 of his points came in the fourth period. QuanealiusFunchess and Brandon Middlebrook added 7 points each. Funchesshanded out four assists.

The Cougars got a late-game lift from guard Khalid Baylis. Baylisscored just 2 points, but he had 3 steals and 3 assists, all of itcoming in the last 10 minutes of the game, giving Lawrence County ashot at the comeback.

The Lawrence County boys fell to 3-10 overall, and 0-3 in thedivision. The Cougars and Lady Cougars will return to action in theMcComb tournament next week. Each team will play 3 games in thataffair.

Junior Varsity Results

Lawrence County edged Florence 35-30 in boys junior varsity play.Eric Boutte had 10 points for the JV Cougars and Matthew Wellsadded 8.