The Mercer County girls reached the 20-win mark for the fourth consecutive season Monday night with a 72-60 victory over Garrard County at Harrodsburg.
Cassidy Martin scored 31 points and Catheryne Claunch scored 23 for Mercer (20-8), which trailed Garrard (14-7) at halftime.
Garrard outscored the Titans 23-13 in the second quarter to take a 33-29 halftime lead, but the Titans took control in the second half.
“We felt like Garrard manhandled us in the first half. They just thumped us inside, so we tried to really get the tempo going to get them out of there because they were just way too big for us, and we did a better job in the third quarter and the fourth quarter and speeded it up a little bit,” Mercer coach Chris Souder said.
Martin and Claunch did much of their damage in the second half and helped Mercer pull away in the fourth quarter, when the Titans went 9 for 9 at the free-throw line to finish 18 for 20.
“We won by 12, but it was a much closer game than that,” Souder said.
Heidi Huffman added 13 points and four assists for Mercer, Claunch and Martin had five steals each and Lyric Houston had five rebounds.
The Titans shot 41 percent (23 for 56) from the field and were 8 for 28 from 3-point range with only eight turnovers.
Autumn Murray scored 20 points for Garrard, which saw a three-game winning streak snapped.
Monday’s Area High School Linescore
GIRLS
Garrard County 10 33 44 60
Mercer County 16 29 48 72
GARRARD (14-7) — Autumn Murray 20, Devin Conley 15, Ryan Cain 5, Victoria Floyd 2, Kelly Smith 14, Randa Morris 2, Sis Logan 2.
MERCER (20-8) — Catheryne Claunch 23, Cassidy Martin 31, Heidi Huffman 13, Raegan Freeman 3, Seygan Robins 2.
