DAPHNE, Alabama — Spanish Fort’s Lady Toros broke out from a close match up in the third quarter to finish with a 48-41 win at Bayside to dampen the Lady Admirals’ senior night last Thursday.

The 3A Lady Admirals held the 5A Lady Toros to a two-point, 27-25, lead at the half but managed only one bucket in the third period to trail 34-27 to start the fourth quarter. Spanish Fort pulled ahead by 10 points (43-33) midway into the final period then held off a couple of Bayside runs down the stretch.

Elaine Wood shot a game-high 26 points for Spanish Fort (16-11) while Danielle diPretoro led the offense for the Lady Admirals (12-11) with 22. diPretoro scored the first 14 points for Bayside.

Spanish Fort head coach Angi Puckett said she was pleased with the way her team handled the pressure of a one-to- two-point game into the second half, then took and defended a lead the rest of the way. The first meeting of the two teams at Spanish Fort went down to the wire.

“We went to a smaller and quicker lineup against them,” she said. “We tried to pressure their guards and I think we were able to force a lot of turnovers. Bayside Academy is a scrappy team though and they play hard. I’m proud of my team, however. It was a great effort by everyone. Marissa Babbs made some great stops on defense and we just played team basketball.”

Bayside head coach Brittany Davidson said that her team did a better job of containing Wood in the first half but made too many mistakes and missed too many free throws late.

“Elaine Wood is a good player and we knew she could hurt us but we gave her too many open shots in the second half,” she said. “You can’t do that against a good shooter like her. But we also hurt ourselves at the line. We only hit 20-of-35 free throws in the game so we didn’t shoot well in that area. We didn’t block out at all in the second half and we weren’t in a position to get the rebound. We played hard and we made a run against them at the end.”

Bayside will travel to Clarke County High in Grove Hill Thursday night for the Girls 3A Area 1 tournament where they will play T.R. Miller at 6 p.m. in the first round. The finals are set for Saturday at 7 p.m.

Spanish Fort will meet Gulf Shores at 6 p.m. in the Girls 5A Area 2 tournament at LeFlore. The winner will advance to the finals Saturday at 6 p.m. to face either LeFlore or Vigor.