By EARL WATT

• Daily Leader

What looked like another disappointing conference game for the Lady Redskins shortly after half turned into a confidence-building rally that ended with a 45-40 win over Great Bend Friday night in the Big House.

Trailing by six at half, the Lady Redskins couldn’t make up any ground on the Lady Panthers for the first three minutes of the third quarter.

Great Bend built the lead to 34-25 after a basket by Alexia Brack.

Over the next two minutes, however, the Great Bend lead would vanish.

Malyssa Williams started the rally by hitting two free throws. Kirsten Ross forced a turnover on the inbound play and laid in a basket.

Another turnover in backcourt led to another lay-up for Williams, and a bad pass was intercepted by Justice Norah who dribbled the ball the length of the floor and  bounced the ball in off the glass to cut the lead to 34-33.

There was an opportunity to completely erase the Lady Panther lead, but the Lady Redskins missed three straight lay-up shots, and Great Bend’s Kathleen Frise was abel to stop the bleeding by hitting a free throw at the end of the third quarter.

But the Lady Redskins wasted little time in completing the comeback. Williams added another basket to start the fourth quarter,a nd after a LAdy Redskin rebound Kayla Varnes hit a mid-range jumper to give the Lady Redskins a 37-35 lead.

Justice Norah took over down the stretch, and the Lady Redskins were able to even their record in the WAC with a 45-40 win.

“That tow minute stretch was the difference in the game,” Liberal coach Shane Stout said. “The girls were excited, they were playing hard. I looked up, and all of a sudden we were only down two. I couldn’t be more pleased with their intensity and enthusiasm.”

After dropping two straight conference games and falling behind by nine, it could have been easy for the Lady Redskins to roll over.

But they didn’t.

“I was concerned that we might tank it,” Stout said. “But the girls fought back. They had great attitudes.”

Norah scored 23 points and Williams had 10, all in the second half.

The Lady Redskins will host Guymon at 6 p.m. Tuesday.