The teams from the Land of Logan face challenges in the Fourth Region Girls Basketball Tournament at Diddle Arena next week following Saturday morning’s draw,
The 13th District champion Logan County Lady Cougars play highly regarded Metcalfe County Tuesday at 7;45 p.m., and the district runner-up Russellville Lady Panthers go against their former coach and his defending regional champion Bowling Green Lady Purples Tuesday.
The goal for 13th District teams—both girls and boys—is usually to draw the 16th District runner-up, and Coach Finley Baird did just that for her Lady Cougars. But Metcalfe County is far from typical for a 16th District also-ran.
Coach Josh Hornets’ Lady Hornets have the third best record in the region at 22-8. One of those wins came against the Lady Cougars, who have the region’s fourth best record at 21-10. Only Barren County (28-4) and BGH (24-7) have better worksheets than these first-round opponents.
Metcalfe County beat Logan 60-54 at LCHS on Dec. 20. Kaylee Harbison had a monster game for the Lady Hornets with 29 points and 11 rebounds. She’s averaging just 13.8 points and 7.5 rebounds an outing on the season. Macy Welsh scored 10 against the Lady Cougars. She’s averaging 12.4 points and 5.7 rebounds. Braelyn Davis scored 15 and Jaycie Harper 12 for Metcalfe in that win.
For Logan in that game, Paige Vanzant scored 15, Addie White 13 and Sarah Beth Hale 11. It was White’s first start of the season, and she responded by hitting three 3-pointers and getting 5 rebounds. Vanzant and Hale struggled shooting that night with Vanzant going 6 of 13 from the field and Hale 3 of 19. On the season, Hale is hitting almost exactly one-third of her shots from long range. She’s averaging 13.7 points per game on the season with Vanzant averaging 12.7 and Kennedy Nichols 11.3.
Nichols and Vanzant each got 8 rebounds against the lady Hornets and Hale 6. Nichols is averaging 10.7 rebounds per game.
The winner of this game will play the Barren County-South Warren winner in Friday’s semifinals at 7:45 Friday. The championship game is scheduled Saturday.
Russellville and BGH have not played this season. The Lady Purples have a 24-7 record and Coach Cameron Jackson’sLady Panthers an 18-11 mark. BGH is 16-2 in the region and RHS 9-6. The Lady Purples have played only two games against 13th District teams, beating Todd Central 67-19 and Logan County 63-41.
The Lady Purples are coached by Calvin Head, who is a former girls basketball coach, softball coach and athletic director at Russellville High School. Current Lady Panthers Jayce Buchner, Deshayla LeBlanc, Chloe Whitescarver, Brooklyn Ray and Anastasia Dowlen played for him At RHS>
Head made progress each year while he was coaching the Lady Panthers, but he has been even more successful as the Bowling Green coach. His first Lady Purples team won the region last year, and he is 44-20 so far in his two seasons at the Class 5A school.
Chloe Elam, who starred at point guard for Coach Dedra Adler at RHS, is on the BGH staff.
Game time is 6 p.m. Wednesday.