By Dan Irwin
New Castle News

A larger-than-normal crowd may have felt a bit foreign to the Union High girls basketball team last night.

The Lady Scots, though, found their comfort zone at the foul line, where a clutch fourth-quarter effort helped them snare a 44-32 win over Laurel in the championship game of Union’s holiday tournament.

Fans who hung around from the day’s two consolation games, as well as those arriving early for the boys final, joined the Lady Scots’ faithful at Covelli Field House. Together, they watched the Lady Spartans jump out to a 13-9 lead by early in the second quarter.

“Laurel’s defense is aggressive, and it bothered us at times in the first quarter,” Union coach Brian Fadden said. “But I also think we were a little overanxious at times, we were making plays that we normally don’t make.

“We’re not used to playing before crowds like this. In the second quarter, we settled down and we started to play the way we normally play.”

The Lady Scots (5-4) closed out the half with a 9-3 run to take an 18-16 advantage into the lockerroom. The game remained close throughout most of the third period, with Union clinging to a 26-24 lead with 3:22 to go.

At that point, though, Union outscored Laurel 18-8 the rest of the way, including a 14-of-17 stretch at the charity stripe.

Conversely, Laurel (2-8) was just 4 of 11 at the line in the fourth quarter.

“That was something we talked about,” Fadden said. “We said if we were shooting foul shots at the end of the game, that was going to be a good situation. We knew that could happen, and we’re a good shooting team.

“Once we had the lead, we’re confident that pretty much anybody who steps up to the line is going to make their free throws. It’s something we practice every day, and we shot them very well.”

Miranda Heaney, who was named the tournament MVP, keyed Union with 18 points. She was 10 of 10 from the foul line. Hannah Booth contributed 11 points and seven rebounds.

Laurel got 12 points from Brooke Dicks, who also was named to the all-tournament squad along with teammate Ellen Shaffer.

Rounding out the all-tournament roster were Union’s Marissa Heaney, Wilmington’s Tessa Sikora and Moniteau’s Ashley Brehm.

(Email: d_irwin@ncnewsonline.com)