The Clarkrange Lady Buffaloes defeated Perry County 62 to 44 in the opening round of the TSSAA state basketball tournament this afternoon.

The Lady Buffaloes Head Coach Lamar Rogers brought his team to the Murphy Center to face a shorter Lady Vikings team. The tallest player for Perry County was 5 foot 10 inches.

Clarkrange went to work on Perry County taking a 19 to 12 lead at the end of the first quarter but it would be a different story in the second. Parry County was down by as much as 13 points but fought back to bring the score to 33 to 31 in favor of the Lady Buffaloes by halftime.

Starting the third quarter, Clarkrange started to pull away from Perry County and the Lady Vikings would not get close to taking the lead for the rest of the game. Clarkrange was leading 47 to 36 at the end of the third quarter.

For Clarkrange, Miss Basketball 2017 Kara Meadows lead the scoring with 20 points. Meadows shot 9 for 3 from the court and had 5 rebounds in her 26 minutes of playing time. Hannah Garrett finished with 15 points and 8 rebounds. Garrett, along with Gracie and Breanna Bush, saw the most playing time with 31 minutes each on the court.

As a team, Clarkrange shot 26 for 44 with 30 rebounds. The Lady Buffaloes shot 59 percent while Perry County was 35 percent. The only area of the game that Perry County edged Clarkrange was in free throws and steals. Perry County hit 8 of 11 for 73 percent while Clarkrange made 4 of 8 for 50 percent. The Lady Vikings had five steals compared to the Lady Buffaloes four.

The game was tied three times in the game and those three times occurred towards the start of the game. One stat left Clarkrange as the dominate team if the score did not dictate that. Perry County led the game for only 48 seconds compared to Clarkranges 28 minutes.

Clarkrange now moves on to tomorrows semi-final game at 4:30 p.m. against the winner of the Huntingdon/Hampton game (to be played at 2:45 p.m. today). All girls state basketball tournament games are played at the MTSU Murphy Center in Murfreesboro.