Grayson County’s eighth-grade girls waited until the fourth quarter to start playing like they were capable of doing, but it was too late to overcome a 26-point deficit as the fell 31-20 to the Muhlenberg South Lady Suns Monday evening at Cougar Gym.

The Lady Suns are an intimidating team, both physically and verbally, and they were totally in the Lady Cougars’ heads in the first three periods.

Grayson County did not score its first basket of the game until the 5:45 mark of the fourth quarter. They trailed 20-1 at the half and 28-2 at the end of the third quarter.

But in the fourth quarter, the Lady Cougars finally learned they had nothing to fear and started challenging every shot and going after every loose ball and rebound.

They scored 10 straight opening the period to cut the deficit to 16 points, 28-12 before Ann Taylor Sparks hit one-of-two free throws to end the run.

The Lady Cougars then strung together six more points to cut the lead to 11 points, 29-18 with 33 seconds left.

South’s Aliah Fueller, who led all scorers in the game with 12 points, added two free throws with 16 seconds left before Kailea Gill closed out the scoring with a lay-up with three seconds left.

When the smoke had cleared, the Lady Cougars had outscored South 18-3, perhaps showing that the Lady Suns could be vulnerable come tournament time.

Gill led the Lady Cougars in scoring with seven points, while Taylor Higdon had six. Breanna Fulkerson had three points, while Desiree Day and Cassidy Swift had two each to complete the scoring. Swift led the Lady Cougars on the boards with five rebounds.