East Limestone had to fight harder than it probably expected, but the Indians were able to hold off a feisty Clements team 63-58 in girls basketball action Thursday night.

The Class 5A Indians led throughout, but could never quite put away the Class 3A Colts, who stayed in the game thanks to 3-point shooting.

“We didn’t play well tonight,” East Limestone coach Josh Davis said. “We came out and scored a lot of points, but our defense and communication is not there right now. Plus, we turned the ball over too many times. Give Clements a lot of credit, but there were some periods where we weren’t play basketball, we were playing robotic.”

East scored 22 points in the first quarter and looked like it would cruise to victory after taking a 37-26 lead into halftime.

However, Clements came back in the second half behind the hot shooting of senior Emrey McGill. McGill scored 21 of her game-high 31 points in the second half, including hitting four 3-pointers.

“The girls played with a lot of heart,” Clements coach Zach Meadows said. “We’re shooting the ball better lately. We didn’t shoot well at the beginning of the season, but we really shot it well tonight and have been for the last week or so. I wish we could’ve got the win, but really proud of the way we played.”

Clements cut East Limestone’s lead to 50-43 after three quarters and got even closer in the fourth. McGill’s 3-pointer with 10 seconds left cut the Indians’ lead to 61-58, but East Limestone’s Jirah Rogers, who scored 25 points to lead the Indians, sealed the win with two free throws with 7 seconds left.

The 58 points was the most given up by East Limestone this season, and was just the second time the Indians have given up more than 50. The other time was in their previous game, a 57-45 loss to Class 4A No. 2-ranked West Limestone.

“That’s a lot more points than we normally give up,” Davis said. “We’ve been holding teams to 40 points or less most of the time. Maybe this can be a wake-up call for us, and we’ll come out of the Christmas break playing hot.”

Taylor Thatch added 15 points for East Limestone, while Mallory Jo Mitchell chipped in with 10.

Rilee Gilliam scored eight points for Clements.

East Limestone also won the boys game, taking a 75-45 victory over Clements. Clements led 12-9 after one quarter, but East Limestone outscored the Colts 28-7 in the second quarter to take a 37-19 halftime lead and cruised to victory in the second half.

Individual statistics from the boys game were not available at press time.