Rossview basketball splits pair of games against Springfield

SPRINGFIELD, Tenn. — Rossview's girls basketball team kept setting the pace — thanks to senior guard Karle Pace — as the Lady Hawks remained unbeaten in District 10-AAA play Tuesday night with a 48-30 win over host Springfield.

In the boys' game, Rossview cut a 22-point second-half deficit to three but couldn't complete its comeback as Springfield maintained its lead in the district standings with a 66-60 victory.

Here are takeaways from the games:

Pushing the Pace

Pace scored  half of her team's points (24) as the Lady Hawks went to 7-0 in District 10-AAA.

"She's been scoring the ball well for us and she got the hot hand tonight," coach Justin Woods said. "We were able to find her a lot in the zone."

Springfield coach Todd Babington said Pace is hard to guard.

"She gets in the lane whenever she wants to and she's good with that left hand," Babington said. "We really didn't have an answer for her tonight."

Tougher than it seemed

Rossview (12-7 overall) had a 24-11 lead early in the third quarter before Springfield (7-9, 3-4) went on a run that cut the lead to 25-23.

But the Lady Hawks scored the last four points of the third quarter and pulled away.

"They do a good job making you work for baskets with their zone and making things tough and making you work," Woods said. "I thought we came out flat, but we were able to string together some stops and get some easy baskets and get us going."

Boys' race jumbled

With the win, Springfield (15-5) retained first place in 10-AAA with a 6-1 record. Entering the night, Rossview (10-7, 4-3) was in a four-way tie for second with Clarksville High, Northeast and Northwest. The Vikings are the team that handed Springfield its only district loss.

Rossview figures to have a scheduling edge the second half of the season. The Hawks will have the top four teams at home. Max Leineweber had 20 points and Austin Jackson added 18 on six 3-pointers.

"We'll get all those teams at home the second half of the season, which starts on Friday," Rossview coach Johnny Jackson said. "It's a tough league with a lot of parity, but we'll be all right and in the thick of things."