Lady Colonels Hold Off Montgomery County Behind Murphy, Hamelback, Johnson And Meade
BACK ON TRACK – Lady Colonel Head Coach Bill Watson talked with his team during a recent game earlier this season. After losing 6 of 7, Bourbon has now won 3 in a row heading into their game with Bracken County on Friday night. If Watson’s team can beat GRC and Paris next week, they will share the top seed in the district with GRC.
The Four Combined For 53 Of
Their Team’s 59 Total Points
IVAN K. RICE | doctorofsports@aol.com
PARIS – Monday night inside Russ Day Gym, Coach Bill Watson’s Bourbon County Lady Colonel basketball team withstood a late rally by the much improved Montgomery County Lady Indians to pull out a key 59-49 district victory for their third straight win.
Bourbon (13-9, 3-1), who had lost 6 out of 7 games prior to their current win streak, assured themselves of no worse than a third place finish in the district, with an outside chance of getting the top seed with a win over GRC and Paris next week, where a coin toss would decide the top seed team for the upcoming 40th district tournament.
Junior guard McLain Murphy led the Lady Colonels with 17 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals. Junior guard Hannah Hamelback, doing her usual thing, followed with 14 points and 7 rebounds. Junior guard Lyndsay Johnson totaled 12 points and 4 rebounds, while freshman center Jhaven Meade finished with 10 points, 11 rebounds and blocked 3 shots. Rounding out their scoring was sophomore guard Jaydyn “Shorty” Goodwin with 6 points. Bella Mitchell, Caylie Baker, Makenzie Kincade and Laiken Hardin all saw action but failed to score.
“We persevered through some foul trouble,” said Lady Colonel Coach Bill Watson in a text message. “But anytime you get four players in double figures that’s a good sign of our balance.”
Junior forward Savannah Parker paced the Lady Indians with a game-high 19 points and 4 rebounds. Freshman Shae Harris totaled 11 points, while eighth grader Reaghan Oney had 9. Hayden Barrier, also an eighth grader, scored 6 points but she did pull down a team-high 9 rebounds. Other scoring saw Allie Dillon with 2 points and 1 point each came from Ella Routt and Emily Williams.
According to Coach Watson, Shorty and Jaycee (Goodwin) teamed up to do an outstanding job defensively on Barrier, holding the 10th Region’s second leading scorer to 6 points.
The loss snapped Montgomery County’s three-game win streak but more importantly, it left Coach Dustin High’s very young team with the fourth seed in the district as their record dropped to 9-12 overall and 0-5 in district play.
Bourbon held a 12-10 lead after the opening quarter and extended their margin to 22-11 on a Hamelback three. Montgomery, behind the scoring of Parker and an old fashion three from Barrier, closed the gap to five by the end of the half at 28-23.
Both teams stayed even throughout the third frame before the Lady Colonels opened the gap over the final eight minutes.
Down by as much as 11, MC closed the gap to five at 50-45 on a three from Barrier but only to see Johnson nail a huge three for the Lady Colonels to push their margin back out to eight. From there, Coach Watson’s team cruised home for the 10-point win.
Neither team shot the ball particular well from the field as Bourbon made only 17 of their 49 field goal attempts that included a 3 of 15 performance from behind the three-point line. Montgomery made just 16 of their 44 field goal attempts and 2 of 14 from three-point range. Bourbon did hit 22 of their 31 free throws, while MC made 15 of 22.
The Lady Colonels will be back at home Friday night when they take on the Lady Polar Bears of Bracken County (3-18) and will stay at home on Saturday evening to play host to Fleming County (10-11). They will entertain George Rogers Clark (12-8, 4-1) on Tuesday night and end next week with a short road trip over to cross-town rival Paris (18-3, 2-2) next Saturday.
