Marion Athletics -

The Marion Lady Patriots have improved every game so far in the early going of this season.
Tuesday night, Marion's hard work paid off.

The Lady Pats outscored Class 6A Conway by 10 points in the fourth quarter to pull away for a 71-63 victory at Fidelity Bank Arena.

Marion got a Herculean effort from underclassmen Maliya Stallings and Summer Morgan, who each scored 22 points against Conway, while freshman Cortlyn Brown poured in 14 of her own.

Conway led 29-27 at halftime, and 46-43 after three quarters, when Marion rallied in winning time.
The Lady Pats connected on nine of their 16 field goal attempts in the final frame, outrebounded the Lady Wampus Cats 11-4, and made nine of 11 free throws in the last eight minutes to keep the visitors at bay.

A Stallings three-pointer with 6:55 left in regulation gave Marion its first lead of the fourth quarter at 48-46, and a pair of free throws from Brown gave Marion a 50-49 lead with 6:16 remaining, and three free throws from Morgan gave the hosts a 55-51 advantage with 5:42 left in the contest.

The lead became 57-51 when Jordyn Wilkerson found Stallings for a layup on the right block with 4:56 remaining, and when LaNiya Crayton recovered a missed layup and put it back in, with 4:05 left, the Lady Pats led 61-54.

Kylie Johnson scored a team-high 22 points for Conway, which got 10 from Miraiyah Wilson and 8 from Phoenyx Stone.

Marion (2-5 overall) made half of its 16 field goal attempts in the first quarter to take an 18-16 lead to the second frame.

In the second quarter, Conway (4-5 overall) forced seven Marion turnovers and made six of 10 field goals to claim a 29-27 halftime advantage.

The Lady Wampus Cats logged 6 offensive rebounds in the third quarter, turning them into 9 second-chance points, to take a 46-43 lead into the fourth quarter.

Morgan scored 11 of her 22 points in the fourth period alone, while Brown scored six.