SCOTTSVILLE – Allen County-Scottsville’s girls’ basketball team will have to wait another year for its next chance to win the Lady Invitational of the South.

The Lady Patriots entered Tuesday’s LIS championship game against Bishop Brossart aiming to win the program’s first title in the 29-year history of ACS’s prestigious home tournament.

The Lady ‘Stangs had other ideas – a solid shooting performance pushed Bishop Brossart to a 56-47 win and made it four runner-up finishes in the LIS for Allen County-Scottsville (7-3).

Bishop Brossart (13-0) won four games in four days to take home the title.

“Blessed to have the experience that we have back,” Lady ‘Stangs coach Aaron Stamm said. “We have kids that this atmosphere didn’t bug them a whole lot. We just kind of played through it. We knew the crowd would be loud and the program down here at Allen County is great. It was just a really, really good four days for us. We got battle tested every game and it really showed for us.”

“ … I think this was a great opportunity for us to play some teams that we don’t normally play and be a part of basically a legendary tournament like this.”

A back-and-forth first quarter saw three lead changes and Bishop Brossart held just a one-point lead before Luciana Guidugli came off the bench to hit a 3-pointer with five seconds left in the quarter to stake her team to a 19-15 lead after eight minutes.

An 8-2 run featuring 3s from Kylie Smith and Avery Wieholter stretched the advantage to 27-17, but the Lady Patriots regrouped to cut the lead to six at one point and trailed by nine (33-24) at halftime.

Bishop Brossart appeared to deliver the knockout blow to start the second half, reeling off an 11-2 run to open up an 18-point lead.

ACS junior guard Avery Morris, who reached the 2,000-point career scoring mark the day before in the Lady Patriots’ tournament win against Green County, answered with a 3-pointer, then scored on a drive to the basket that drew a foul – she hit the free throw, too.

Morris finished with a game-high 24 points before fouling out late in the fourth quarter, adding a team-best four steals.

“We knew she was going to score,” Stamm said of Morris. “She’s a really phenomenal player. I thought she was going to get 20, that that was going to be normal, but we just made her work a little bit, made her take some tough shots, made her guard on the other end – I thought that was key too – and those things helped.”

The Lady ‘Stangs again got a momentum-shifting 3 in the final seconds of the third quarter from Lilee Meyers to lead 47-32 heading into the fourth.

ACS grabbed that momentum back with a 10-2 run capped by Leighton Boler’s basket in the paint to trim the deficit to 49-42 with 4:41 to play.

“I was proud of our kids for coming back and making a game out of it – we made them sweat a little bit, no doubt about it,” Lady Patriots coach Garry Dewitt said. “It could’ve gone the other way. There was a moment in there where we might get beat by 30, but we didn’t do that.”

Kylie Smith, who earned the tournament’s most valuable player award, ended Bishop Brossart’s 2 1/2-minute scoring drought with a basket on a drive through the lane, then Greylee Kramer hit a 3 that pushed the lead back out to 12 with 2:36 left.

Morris kept the Lady Patriots in it with a basket off a drive and then a 3-pointer with 57 seconds left that cut it to a seven-point deficit once more.

Forced to foul, ACS missed an opportunity when Bishop Brossart missed on two straight free throws but managed to grab the offensive rebound for two more – Smith sank one to push the lead to eight.

The Lady Patriots then lost possession on a turnover and Wieholter hit a free throw on the other end to set the final score.

“We knew they were going to make a run – they’re too good of a team, plus on their home floor, trying to win that first tournament that they’ve had,” Stamm said. “I thought our kids hung in there at the end and did a nice job.”

Smith led the Lady ‘Stangs with 17 points. Kramer added 14 points and Meyers finished with nine points.

ACS outrebounded the taller Bishop Brossart squad 36-31, but the Lady Pats’ 18-of-59 shooting (30.5%) couldn’t match the Lady ‘Stangs’ 21-of-44 (47.7%) effort.

“We missed too many shots early, got ourselves in a hole,” Dewitt said. “We tried to come back out of it. I was really proud of the the way the kids battled back.

“We’ve got to be where we can do things over and over and over. We set good screens, we run good offense but we can’t finish. We’ve got to finish if we want to win a championship down the road.”

ACS is back in action Friday at District 15 rival Glasgow.

BBHS 19 14 14 9 – 56

ACSHS 15 9 8 15 – 47

BBHS – Smith 17, Kramer 14, Meyers 9, Shewmaker 5, Eviston 4, Wieholter 4, Guidugli 3.

ACSHS – Morris 24, Patrick 8, Ford 7, Carter 3, P. Marr 3, Boler 2.