Both district basketball and WRUS’ coverage of high school basketball for this season begin tonight.
The Logan County Lady Cougars and Cougars will entertain Franklin-Simpson in a girl-boy district doubleheader.
The Lady Cats are the only team among the four with a winning record. Coach Lex Lindsey’s F-S girls are 2-1 while Coach Finley Baird’s Lady Cougars are 1-1. Coach Dee Spencer’s Franklin boys are 1-2 and Coach John Tinsley’s Cougars are 0-2.
All of them are expected to improve as the season progresses.
The Lady Cougars lost a lot of talent and experience last year, but they return three senior starters—center Kennedy Nichols, point guard Paige Vanzant, and shooting guard Peyton Vanzant. Senior Addie White has been a varsity player for four years and has started some games. Senior Gracie Christian and junior Abby Hinton are in their third years on the varsity.
Not only are the Lady Cougars the two-time defending district champions, but they have also won the district and a game at region in five of the prior six seasons that Baird has been their coach.
The sad news for the Lady Cougars is that super athlete KJ Page is once again on injured reserve. After having undergone extensive rehabilitation of leg injuries twice in years past, the speedy junior against went under the knife Tuesday and will have to miss at least most of this season. She was all region in softball last year, so this injury affects two Logan teams.
The Franklin girls have beaten Monroe County and Clinton County but lost to South Warren Tuesday. Lex Lindsey, a former Lady Cougar assistant coach who knew great success in his first stint at the Lady Cats helm, returns some experienced players, led by senior Evyn McCutchen and junior Kate Norwood. They also got a double-double from Alera Barbee and 12 points form Hadley Turner in the win over Monroe County.
The Cougars, who won the district in Tinsley’s first year as the LCHS coach last season, return full-time starter Anthony ‘Rooster’ Woodard, sometimes starter Dalton Thompson, and center Nathaniel Vick, who was a starter until suffering a season-ending injury in mid-year.
Also back are juniors and seniors Dylan Basham, Brady Griggs, Jay Hardison, Landon Larson and Blake Wood.
Logan’s losses are to Muhlenberg County by 11 and Bullitt East by six. Tinsley has a policy of not reporting individual statistics.
Franklin’s boys came from behind to beat Clinton County 46-45 in between an 8-point loss to Monroe County and a 5-pointer to South Warren. They held a Spartan team which had scored over 80 points against Allen County-Scottsville to 60 points.
Familiar names for the Wildcats are Dawson Knight, Andreyous Miller, DeMarco Chatman and Kyjuan Stutzman.
Both games will be aired on WRUS, beginning with Countdown to Tipoff at 5:45. Zack Woodall and Ben Brown will do the reporting. WRUS’ FM signal is now at a stronger 104.9, and the game is also available on the WRUS website and mobile device.