Loreal Cheaney has been a member of the Russellville High varsity team for five seasons, beginning as a seventh grader in Coach Dedra Adler’s program. She has been a starter and key player for the Lady Panthers for three years, the last two under Coach Calvin Head.
But until the past few days, she’s played beneath the radar of media stardom. That may have all changed Monday night.
Cheaney scored an eye-popping 43 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in leading RHS to a 66-62 win at Warren East.
And now—after the team has gone 7-41 the last two seasons, beginning with a 2-21 season under Coach Justin McClellan, the Lady Panthers are 2-0. It began with a 58-53 victory at Butler County last week. Cheaney scored 28 in that one. In fact, she has scored 35 points in the two fourth quarters combined.
The daughter of Sarah Higgins Cheaney, who was a Kentucky All-Star while playing for Coach Mike Haynes at Logan County High School and then played for Murray State University, Loreal Cheaney is averaging 35.5 points an outing.
Loreal scored 16 points in the fourth quarter against East, and her team needed most of them.
East led 20-13 early in the second quarter before the Lady Panthers went on a 16-0 run to take the lead at 29-20. Cheaney scored nine of those points. The Russellville lead improved to 40-26 on a three-point play by Cheaney, but Coach Jason Peters’ Lady Raiders made a couple of runs of their own.
Carrie Abney’s goal with 6:25 remaining pulled East to within 44-41. Cheaney kept RHS ahead, but the Lady Raiders pulled to within 65-62. Then Devonya Bryant hit a free throw with 3.2 points to seal the win. Bryant finished with 13 points.
The Lady Raiders had a couple of high scorers themselves with freshman Baylen Wardlow scoring 26 and Erin Houchens 18.
Head’s Lady Panthers will be favored to make their record 3-0 when they travel to Elkton to take on district foe Todd Central in a girl-boy doubleheader Friday.
Loreal Cheaney has made a name for herself. She made the headline on an extended story on the front page of the Sports section of the Bowling Green Daily News Tuesday. There’s more work to do, however. That newspaper’s high school sports expert, the highly respected Michael Compton, misspelled her name throughout the entire article.
If she keeps up the pace she’s on, that will change, too.
Score by Quarters: 1) East 15-13, 2) RHS 37-26, 3) RHS 44-36, Final) Russellville 66, Warren East 62
RHS (66) Loreal Cheaney 43,Devonya Bryant 13,Tiffany Gray 5, DeShale LeBlanc 4, Addie Hendley 1, Jolanda Wells, Reagan Wilkerson, Gabbi Poirier
East (62) Baylen Wardlow 26, Erin Houchens 19, Haylee Glenn 7, Cailyn Howard 6, Carrie Abney 3, Kaley Boyd 2