Dec 4, 2004 By Mike Ciarochi 3 min read

They don’t give style points in basketball. For that, Albert Gallatin girls basketball coach Shea Fleenor is thankful. “Pretty ugly, wasn’t it?” Fleenor said after his Lady Colonials escaped with a 46-37 win over Brashear in the Laurel Highlands Tip-Off Tournament Friday night at the LH Middle School.

Neither team had much of a shooting touch in the first game of the season, but AG took the lead early in the second quarter thanks, strangely enough, to the three-point shooting of senior guard Megan Bowers.

Bowers hit five three-pointers to lead all scorers with 15 points. She spearheaded a stretch in which the Lady Colonials went from an 8-7 deficit to an 18-14 lead. Later in the game, every time Brashear got close, Bowers came through with another three-pointer. She stretched leads from 30-27 to 33-27 and, with six minutes remaining, from 35-31 to 38-31.

“Thank goodness she was ready to play tonight,” Fleenor said. “She came off the bench, played hard and was ready to score. We needed her tonight.”

Bowers was the only Albert Gallatin player in double figures, as she countered Brashear’s Jamie Twigg and Ebony Jackson, who scored 11 each for the Lady Bulls.

Fleenor also was pleased to get some varsity experience under the belts of a couple of sophomores. “This was Megan Angelo’s first varsity experience and she got her feet wet and Marissa Murray got some valuable minutes off the bench. She had been injured and just had about two days of practice,” he said.

And Fleenor was pleased that his team got some kinks out in a win, something AG didn’t experience very often in a 3-21 season last year.

“Anytime you get a win the first time out, it’s a plus,” Fleenor said. “It can only help our confidence. Heck, we’re already close to last year’s win total. We think we can get more than three wins in the first week of this season. We kind of set that as a goal and, if we can get a little better every time out, we have a chance to accomplish it.”

Brashear coach Bob Fazio was happy to have a game under his belt, but said he expected more from his team.

“Some of these girls didn’t do as well as we had hoped,” Fazio said. “But we’re young and the girls were nervous. We only have one senior who starts for us.”

Shooting was the culprit that hurt the Lady Bulls. “We missed too many easy shots tonight and we only have half of our foul shots (15-of-30),” Fazio said.

And it was foul shots down the stretch that helped AG hold on for the win. AG made only one field goal in the fourth quarter – a Bowers three-pointer – but connected on 10 free throws.

Both teams return to action tonight at Laurel Highlands High School, with Brashear taking on Greensburg Salem at 3:30 p.m. and Albert Gallatin meeting Laurel Highlands at 8:30 p.m.