Brewer’s Lady Patriots (17-2, 4-1) overcame a sloppy 28 turnovers by outrebounding Hartselle 41-14 to defeat the home-standing Lady Tigers 59-46.

Brewer girls basketball coach Ricky Allen wasn’t happy with the team’s ball handling, but he gave credit to Hartselle for playing tough defense.

“Hartselle really played inspired basketball tonight,” Allen said. “We really played well in the second quarter scoring on 11 of 13 possessions, but we came out in the third quarter and only scored on one of our first few possessions in the third quarter. It got kind of ugly, but we got the win.”

The win prevents Brewer from having its first losing streak of the season.

Brewer jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead, but the Tigers battled back to take a 12-11 late in the first quarter on an Allie Roden 3-pointer. However, several of Hartselle’s starters got two fouls in the first half. Melissa Paul Hill even had three fouls in the first two quarters.

Hartselle coach Gary Orr said that foul trouble hurt hampered his team’s ability to defend.

“We got in foul trouble early in the game and it hurt us,” Orr said.

That allowed Brewer to take a 15-12 lead at the end of the first quarter. Hartselle scored the first five points of the second quarter thanks to Kanesia Elliot and Quanesha Burks. Elliot led Hartselle with 16 points, 5 steals and 4 rebounds.

That would be the Lady Tigers’ last lead of the game. Brewer outscored Hartselle 19-7 to take a 34-24 lead at halftime.

In the third quarter, Hartselle whittled the lead down to 39-34 midway through the third quarter, but Brewer pushed the lead up to 12 points late in the third quarter.

Roden hit another 3-pointer at the buzzer of the third quarter to cut the lead to 46-39.

“We were kind out of synch tonight,” said Courtney Oldacre, who scored 13 points. “We’ve just got to continue to stay focused and get better on defense. Our goal is to win a state championship.”

That would be as close at Hartselle could get as Brewer pulled away in the closing minutes to win by 13.

Riley Northway led the Lady Patriots with 19 points and 11 rebounds while Hannah Landers had 8 points and 6 rebounds. Rheagan Harvel and Mallory Drinkard added 6 points each followed by Savana Flack and Cheyenne McLemore with 3 each and Danielle Dunn with 2 points and 12 rebounds.