The ball hung on the rim interminably, teetering on causing joy or sorrow, depending on which side of the goal it decided to fall. It chose out instead of in, bringing joy to Logan County and sadness to the Lady Lakers of Russell County.
Behind strong bench play and a tremendous start early in the game Tuesday, the Lady Cougars held off the 16^th District champions in the first round of the Fourth Region Tournament at Diddle Arena on the campus of Western Kentucky University.
Having led by five points at the close of the first quarter and by twice that many at halftime, the Lady Cougars appeared to be headed for an easy win when they increased the margin to 14 at the start of the third quarter. Anyone who chose that moment to head home or visit friends in the concourse of the arena had to be shocked to learn the verdict was literally hanging in the balance less than three seconds before the final horn blew.
Logan’s Ladies played good defense in the final seconds, had good fortune on their side and got the clinching rebound to hold on for a 55-54 win.
Appropriately, it was a reserve, Jaylin Jones, who pulled down the game’s final rebound, since the bench had played big all night for Logan County. Post player Miranda Rone came off the bench on fire, scoring 10 of her team-high 16 points in the first half. She only missed one shot all night and added four blocked shots and three rebounds. Fellow reserves Markita Pheal and Jones were especially good on defense. Meagan Williams, Meg Brown and Shannon MacAllister also contributed to the depth factor.
Coach Scot MacAllister needed to call on all the depth he could muster from his roster, since the Lady Cougars, who came into the tournament as the 13 ^th District runner-up, stayed in foul trouble all night.
The Lady Lakers lived at the foul line, hitting five more free throws than Logan attempted. Russell County hit 23 of 32 free throws while the winners were 13 of 18 at the line. On the other hand, LCHS attempted 15 more shots from the field (48-33) and got four more to fall (19-15). Three of those extra made baskets were 3-pointers; Logan hit 4 of 10 from long range and Russell County 1 of 2. Part of that was Logan’s defense. The remainder resulted from fouls being called before the Lady Lakers had a chance to shoot.
Everybody was hitting everything early. After ties at the first three even numbers, senior guard Ann Dorris scored five straight points for Logan on a 3-pointer and a drive. Those turned out to be her only points of the night, but they gave the Lady Cougars an 11-6 lead, Russell County came back to go ahead 14-13 on the team’s only trey of the contest. It also proved to be their only lead, although that rim rocker at game’s end could have made a decisive and disastrous second lead change.
Kayla MacAllister drained a 3-pointer to put Logan ahead for keeps. Then Rone took over, putting together a 3-point play, helping Brown force the Lady Lakers into a five-second count and turnover at midcourt, and then connecting on another shot to make Logan’s lead 21-16 at the first break.
Pheal scored five quick points in the second quarter as the result of her steals and rebounds. When Rone hit a shot at the buzzer, the Lady Cougars led 35-25 at halftime. Logan had hit 13 of 26 field goal attempts, but Russell County had already been to the foul line 19 times, hitting 12. The biggest difference was that the Logan bench had outscored their opponents 15-1.
The second half began with Sara Speck hitting a long two-pointer and Kayla MacAllister putting a rebound back in to build the lead to 14 at 39-25.No problem, right? Wrong.
Russell County, which finished 18-9, took advantage of four straight Lady Cougar turnovers plus a rebound resulting from a Logan shot that bounced out of bounds to cut the lead to 42-35. Speck reversed the trend when she banked in a 3-pointer, and then she hit a pair of free throws. Again, Rone scored the final two points of the period on free throws to make the Lady Cougar lead 46-37 at quarter’s end.
Michelle England’s drive gave the Lady Cougars a 53-47 lead with four minutes remaining, but her team managed only two more points the rest of the game. Then winning basket was put in by Speck with a little over a minute left. The Lady Cougars turned the ball over a couple of times after that, leading to a Russell County possession and time out with 14.3 seconds. Speck put up enough defense to make leading Lady Laker scorer Rachel Miller just miss the shot, preserving the victory. Coach MacAllister had sent his team into a 1-3-1 zone during that last timeout that proved to befuddle the Lady Lakers somewhat.
In support of Rone, Speck scored 13 points, all but four coming in the second half; she added five boards. Four teammates scored from five to seven points, and starting guard Victoria Elliott’s lone bucket in the first quarter counted as much as any of them.
Miller had 19 points and Lindsay Ramage 14 for Rusell County, but the Lady Cougar defense held super freshman Leeann Grider to nine points.
The Lady Cougars (18-9) will now face Greenwood in the semifinal Friday night. The Lady Gatos beat Glasgow in Tuesday’s first game. The other semi features what is considered a heavyweight bout between Franklin-Simpson and Bowling Green. The championship game will be Saturday at 7 p.m.
Score by quarters: 1) LCHS 21-16, 2) 35-25, 3) 46-37, Final) Logan County 55, Russell County 54
LCHS (55) Miranda Rone 16, Sara Speck 13, Kayla MacAllister 7, Markita Pheal 6, Michelle England 6, Ann Dorris 5, Victoria Elliott 2, Jaylin Jones, Meagan Williams, Meg Brown,
Shannon MacAllister
RCHS (54) Laura Miller 19, Lindsay Ramage 14, Leeann Grider 9, Wethington 8, Hoover 3, Pierce 1