n Lady Pioneers fall after giving up early lead in game.

GENTRY -- Ella Duke couldn't let Samantha Pruitt do all the work Tuesday night.

The junior guard was wide open when the ball came her way, so she nailed a 3-pointer from the left wing with 2 seconds left and gave Gravette a 40-38 victory over Gentry in a 4A-1 Conference girls basketball action on the Lady Pioneers' home court.

"Honestly, I wasn't even thinking about getting the ball," Duke said. "I was assuming that Sam was going to get the shot off .

"It came to me, and I was like 'I've got to shoot it.' So I shot it, and it happened to go in."

Gravette (4-12, 2-5) held the ball for a final shot after Haley Borgeteien-James' two free throws gave Gentry (2-13, 0-7) a 38-37 lead with 24.5 seconds remaining. Kylee Davis dribbled around for most of the time as she tried to get the ball to Pruitt, who finished with a team-high 20 points.

Pruitt was tightly guarded, but it left Duke all alone on the left wing. She calmly caught the ball, and her shot hit nothing but net.

Gentry then called timeout with 1.3 seconds on the clock, but the Lady Pioneers failed to get a shot before the buzzer sounded.

"It was just a battle," Gravette coach William Pittman said. "Some people would call it ugly, and it might have been at times. But it was just two teams that wanted to win.

"Both teams fought hard, and both teams made some mistakes. Both teams also made some big plays, and we just happened to make one more. Ella just had a big shot."

Neither team led by more than two points throughout the entire second half, and it resulted in 13 of the game's 15 lead changes. Gravette put together the biggest string of points at five when a Davis 3-pointer and a bucket by Sydney Hicks gave the Lady Lions a a 25-24 lead with 5 minutes, 54 seconds left in the third quarter.

BOYS

Gravette 32

Gentry 22

Terence Pierce and Kyle Fox combined to score 11 of Gravette's 17 points in the fourth quarter as the Lions withstood Gentry's patient strategy and ended a two-game losing skid.

Matt Juillerat's 3-pointer pulled Gentry (2-10, 0-7) within 21-19 with 2:41 remaining, but Fox hit three free throws and a layup to help Gravette (13-5, 5-2) pull away.

Otto Troutner had 10 points and Pierce added 9 for the Lions. Brent Barker paced Gentry with eight points.