The Lady Bulldogs could not recover from their bad start against Spring Garden on Friday. (Daily Home)

ALPINE — The No. 9 Winterboro Lady Bulldogs dropped their third game of the season Friday, a 39-30 loss to visiting Spring Garden.

Spring Garden improved to 7-4 with the win, while Winterboro dropped to 5-3.

The Lady Panthers also defeated Winterboro 44-37 in the Lincoln Thanksgiving Tournament on Nov. 23.

“We got outplayed tonight; it was definitely a different team than I saw from the Thanksgiving Tournament,” said Winterboro head coach Sheroderick Smith. “They got after it more than we did. We seemed as if at times we didn’t even want it. We got beat on the boards very badly.”

Madison Sides led Spring Garden with 10 points, while Emory Reedy tallied eight.

Jasmine Richardson led Winterboro with 15 points, six rebounds and six steals. Anslea Twyman added five points and six rebounds, while Jamie Duncan also had five points for the Lady Bulldogs.

“Our young players are still transitioning into varsity play,” Smith said. “I think they get nervous at times, and we can’t put the game on the shoulders of one or two players. I see the things we need to work on.”

Winterboro fell behind early in the game. Spring Garden took a 5-0 lead before the Lady Bulldogs got on the board with two free throws from Richardson. Back-to-back 3-pointers from Spring Garden’s Jordan Sides and Madison Sides put the Lady Panthers up 14-3 toward the end of the opening quarter.

Spring Garden took control of the game in the second quarter by outscoring Winterboro 19-5.

Richardson opened the quarter with a bucket to cut the lead down to 14-7, but midway through the quarter the Lady Panthers went on a 10-0 run to take a commanding lead.

At the half, Spring Garden led 33-10.

Winterboro was able to cut into the lead a little with a 7-2 run to start the third quarter, which was capped by a 3-pointer from Duncan. But by the end of the quarter, Spring Garden had maintained an 18-point lead at 37-19.

Winterboro opened the fourth quarter on an 11-2 run. Tanesha Merritt’s 3-pointer cut the Lady Bulldogs’ lead down to 12 points with under three minutes to play. After a free throw from Twyman and a layup from Richardson, Winterboro came within nine points with just over a minute remaining.

Spring Garden responded by effectively running down the clock, allowing the Lady Panthers to leave Alpine with their seventh win of the year.

Winterboro is scheduled to travel to Munford on Wednesday for a 4:30 p.m. game.

“Munford is playing some great basketball right now,” Smith said. “We just have to get back to practice and find a way to work hard, get aggressive, get into a little better shape and make sure we work on rebounding and defense.”

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