The Dawson County High School junior varsity girls basketball team picked up two big wins last week.

On Tuesday, the Lady Tigers defeated a tall Walnut Grove team, 35-27. Friday, the team needed overtime, but managed to come away with a 27-25 win over East Jackson.

Dawson is currently 4-4 on the year. The four losses have been by five points or less.

Kacie Bearden hit a huge three-point shot at the buzzer before halftime to tie the score at 14-14 against Walnut Grove.

With two minutes remaining in the game, the score was tied at 27-27.

The Lady Tigers pulled away behind the clutch free throw shooting of Bearden.

Bearden converted 5-of-6 free throws during that two-minute stretch to ice the win.

Bearden was also the offensive story of the game for Head Coach Jed Lacey’s team.

Bearden connected on four, three-pointers to finish the game with 19 points.

“She is calm, cool and collected in the heat of any battle,” said Lacey.

Bearden is averaging 11.7 points per game for the junior varsity team.

“Walnut Grove was much bigger in the post (than us), but Bethany Auten, Samie Smith, Whitney Glover and Kelsey Stanfill battled to work the taller girls, and we won the battle of the boards,” said Lacey.

Friday’s battle with East Jackson had the Lady Tiger fans sitting on the edge of their seats for four quarters.

Gracie Hovan connected on two free throws in overtime to seal the win for Dawson County.

Hovan led all Lady Tiger scorers with 11 points.

“Gracie came in to her own this game, (she) put the team on her back and showed the type of player she is going to be in the future with her best performance of the year,” said Lacey.

Stephanie Pennington added seven points for Dawson in the win.

“Stephanie played her best game of the year, coming through with clutch free throws going five for six. She also showed her ball handling skills in helping control the tempo of the game,” said Lacey.

“We play hard and we play defense like we are protecting our house from burglars,” he added.