The Olmstead Lady Rams built an 11-point lead at halftime and then kept the margin near that level the rest of the game while winning their fourth straight Logan County Middle School Basketball Tournament championship Tuesday at Logan County High School.
Coaches Daniel Alvis and Chris Wilcutt continue to build and maintain dominant teams in the county despite many of the girls who have been mainstays of the team over the years moving on to high school. This year’s team was very young but by tournament time the Lady Rams had matured into championship form.
All four Auburn points in that first quarter came from Karrah Cron, who had led Coach Josh Hall’s team in scoring in the semifinals, but the Lady Rams never let her score again in the game. Sixth grader Brea Croslin led the Olmstead scoring attack early.
Olmstead upped the lead to 15-4 on goals by Peyton Vanzant and Ginny Edwards before Rosie Kerchenski put in the Lady Tigers’ first bucket of the second quarter. Olmstead responded with a goal by Carlie Alvis on an assist by Vanzant.
Sara Bills, who led the Lady Tigers’ offense off the bench, scored with 40 seconds remaining to cut the lead to nine, but Katie Noffsinger scored for Olmstead at the buzzer on an assist from Alvis to make the halftime lead 19-8. Blayke Bingham led a balanced OMS attack with five at the intermission.
Another basket by Bills cut the lead to single digits again, but Bingham scored on an Alvis assist to make it 25-14 entering the final period. Paige Vanzant, a sixth grader like her sister, put together a 3-point play to make it 29-15. After Bills hit a free throw for Auburn, Peyton Vanzant hit two free throws and Edwards one to give Olmstead its biggest lead at 15.
Auburn came back with a mini-run. Micah Page hit a field goal and Sarah Beth Hale a pair of free throws, but Olmstead’s Brea Croslin scored her game-high 10th and 11th points to end the threat.
Fourteen players—seven for each team—scored in this championship game. Croslin had 11 and Bingham 7 for the winners. Bills led Auburn with 7 but no one else had more than 4.
The young players came up big. For Olmstead, Alvis, Bingham and Noffsinger are seventh graders while Croslin and the Vanzants are sixth graders. For Auburn, Hale, Cron, Kerchenski, Andrea Hinojoza and Jillian McLellan are seventh graders, Micah Page a sixth grader, and Kaylin Page a fifth grader.
Coaches Alvis and Wilcutt prepared the Lady Rams for tournament competition by playing a tough out-of-county schedule that included teams from Bowling Green and Owensboro.
Score by quarters: 1) OMS 11-4, 2) 19-8, 3)25-14, Final) Olmstead 34, Auburn 22
AuMS (22) Sara Bills 7, Karrah Cron 4, Sara Beth Halle 3, Jilliam McLellan 3, Rosie Kerchenski 2, Micah Page 2, Briana Roberts 1
OMS (34) Brea Croslin 11, Blakye Bingham 7, Ginny Edwards 5, Peyton Vanzant 4, Paige Vanzant 3, Carlie Alvis 2, Katie Noffsinger 2, Madison Stratton