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STANFORD – The Boyle County Rebels won 41-32 over Lincoln County Friday night.

Boyle (10-11, 3-2 45th District) nosed ahead of Lincoln (12-10, 4-3) in the race for one of the two byes in the district tournament later this month.

The Boyle County boys may have muddied things up a little bit on their way to a victory over Lincoln County, but their coach Dennie Webb said it looked pretty good to him.

In a game in which neither team shot the ball effectively, Boyle rebounded well, defended well and made enough shots to beat Lincoln for only the second time in the teams’ last seven meetings and gain a split of the regular-season series.

“I think the ugly for us came toward the end,” Webb said, referring to a fourth quarter in which the Rebels took a little longer to put the game away than he would have liked. “Other than that, I thought we played decent. We played hard for three quarters, we shot the ball well in the beginning.”

The Rebels controlled the game from the outset as they raced to a 16-3 lead on the strength of two 3-pointers by Demauriah Brown and one each by Montavin Quisenberry and Seneca Driver.

The Patriots never got closer than nine points after that, even though Boyle scored only three points in the final 7:02 and missed nine of 12 free throws in the final 2:11.

Boyle shot 32 percent from the field and just 27 percent over the final three quarters. Lincoln shot 22 percent and had no more than three field goals in any single period of its lowest-scoring game of the season.

Blade Nuckols had 14 points to lead Lincoln, all in the second and third periods. Sawyer Horton had 10 rebounds for the Patriots, who beat the Rebels 62-59 on Jan. 12 on Nuckols’ last-second 3-pointer.

If the current district standings hold, Lincoln and Boyle would almost certainly meet once more in the district tournament semifinals. The teams have faced off in the last three 45th District finals, with Lincoln winning all three.

Girls: Boyle County 54, Lincoln County 42

Offensive rebounds and turnovers were the difference as Boyle defeated Lincoln for the second time in 11 days.

Boyle led 39-22 late in the first half but was shut out for the first 5:19 of the second half while Lincoln (10-9, 3-4) trimmed the margin to eight points. However, the Lady Patriots got no closer.

“I think that was the only quarter that we really fought,” Lincoln coach Caitlin Hall Parson said. “That was the only quarter we played with heart, and I’ve got to get them to continue to do that throughout the whole game.”

Lincoln shot 43 percent from the field, while Boyle, which won the first meeting 52-36 on Jan. 23, shot 33 percent.

Macey Rice scored 14 points and MaKayla Greer had 10 for the Lady Patriots, who are within one win of their total from last season. Gatlynn Lewis had a game-high 10 rebounds.

“We’re progressing very well,” Parson said. “We have a few things to work on, but we’re going to get there.”

The Lady Rebels got almost twice as many field goal attempts as the Lady Patriots – 63 to 34 – by forcing 24 turnovers and grabbing 17 offensive rebounds.

Boyle coach Brian Britt said it was indicative of the effort he wants his team to give every night.

“We’re definitely always going to get after it no matter what,” Britt said. “No matter which five are on the floor, they know we’re going to play hard, we’re going to do things right defensively and fly around.”

Addison Yates had 24 points, Payton Bugg added 10 points and Andie Glassock had seven rebounds for Boyle (17-7, 3-1), which is firmly in second place in the district standings, three games ahead of third-place Lincoln (10-9, 3-4) in the loss column entering the homestretch of the season.