It took an extra period to decide the county and district rivalry between Sweetwater and Sequoyah Thursday night at the Chop House. The Lady Cats took a 43-39 win.
Both teams had a shot to win the game in the final seconds of regulation play, which ended with scoreboard reading 34 on each side.

The teams swapped turnovers - a common occurrence in this contest - as the overtime began until Shea Ervin put the Lady Cats on top with a single free throw at the 2:36 mark.
Lindsay Cooper, with an assist from Kassidi Freeman, gave Sequoyah a 36-35 edge with just under two minutes to play.

Sweetwater then got a single free throw from Bridgette Latham and two from Ervin to lead 38-36 before Ervin broke free on a run out for an easy two and a four point lead for the visitors.
Oceana Richards hit two free throws for the Lady Chiefs to produce the final count.
The contest was plagued with turnovers by both squads.

The two teams combined to shoot an incredible total of 71 free throws. Sweetwater went to the charity stripe 45 times, they made 20, and Sequoyah made 15 of their 26 attempts.
Fouls were a problem, especially for the Lady Chiefs, who played the fourth quarter and the extra period with their leading scorer Hayley Simpson and top rebounded Hilary Dyer both on the bench with five fouls. Sequoyah kept three freshmen on the floor for that span.

Ervin, who led the Lady Cats with 17 points, left with five fouls with 1:22 to play in overtime.
Following Ervin's 17 points came Paige Hicks with 11. Latham added seven points for the Lady Cats, Katie Thomasson got four, Allie Bowden scored three and Ariana Conwell got one point.
Oceana Richards hit four treys, the only ones in the contest, and led Sequoyah with a game high 21 points.

Other Lady Chiefs who scored were Danielle Slack with five, Charissa Cardin with four, Cooper with four, Simpson with three and Freeman and Dyer with one point apiece. Katie Russell, Amber Linkous, Megan McConkey and Sam Hamilton also played for Sequoyah.
Sweetwater got a free throw from Bowden and two from Latham in the first period but did not score other than that.

The Lady Chiefs got two 3-pointers from Richards, a put back basket by Cardin and a Simpson free throw to lead 9-3 after one.
Baskets by Hicks and Ervin helped Sweetwater back to within two as the second stanza got under way.

Richards then made her third trey before the Lady Chiefs scored seven straight points to take a 21-11 advantage at 2:33 before the half. Sweetwater hit 3 of 6 free throws in that span and Sequoyah took a 21-14 lead into halftime.
After going the last 2:33 of the first half without a point, the Lady Chiefs continued that same bad habit in the third.
They got just two free throws in the period.

Sweetwater got just one field goal in the third and hit 5 of 8 free throws to leave the score knotted at 23 with one period to play.
Ervin completed an old-fashioned three-point play to give Sweetwater a 26-23 edge and the fourth period began.
Slack countered with two free throws for the Lady Chiefs to leave the Lady Cats ahead by one with 6:46 on the clock.

One minute later, Hicks grabbed a loose ball and put Sweetwater ahead 28-25 and seconds later Richards drove for two and hit one free throw to tie the score at 28 with 4:14 left in regulation.
The Lady Cats took a four-point lead when Latham and Ervin each got two.

Cardin countered for the Lady Chiefs, then Richards made a free throw and Cooper scored off the offensive glass and Sequoyah was up 33-32 with 1:30 to play in the fourth.
The Lady Chiefs missed a chance to likely take a win at the 1:09 mark.
A Sequoyah rebound of a missed Lady Cats shot drew a foul, two shots because of the double bonus. A technical foul was added, but the Lady Chiefs could not take advantage of that golden opportunity and made just one of the four free throws.

Each team then committed two turnovers before Hicks scored at the 38 second mark for force overtime.
Sequoyah will take a week off to prepare for its first meeting of the season with Tellico Plains. That game will be at The Chop House and tip-off is scheduled for 6 p.m.

Sweetwater hosts rival Loudon on Tuesday at 6 p.m. and will travel to Meigs County on Friday.