Breckinridge County’s middle school Lady Tigers came into Cougar Gym on Tuesday and went home with both ends of a girls basketball doubleheader.
In the opening game, the 7th grade Lady Cougars trailed by 10 points heading into the final period of play and roared back to tie the game with under 20 seconds left, only to see the Lady Tigers escape with a one-point, 32-31 win.
The eighth-grade game was no contest as the Lady Tigers reeled off a 24-point, 34-10 win.
SEVENTH-GRADE GAME
This game was close throughout the first half, with two ties and five lead changes before the break. Annie Kiper’s 10-footer at the 2:01 mark of the first quarter saw the Lady Cougars holding a three-point advantage, 7-4.
The Lady Tigers answered with four straight to take their first lead of the night, 8-7. Emma Strange followed with a 10-footer with 58 seconds left and Grayson County led by one, 9-8 as the second period began.
When the Lady Tigers opened the second period with a 6-2 run, they held their largest lead of the first half, three points at 14-11 at the 3:44 mark, but they would not score again in the half. Grayson County took advantage to score the final six points and led by three, 17-14 at the halftime break.
Things took a turn for the worse for Grayson County at the start of the third quarter when both Kiper and Kelsey Cornwell had to go to the bench with foul trouble. The Lady Tigers scored the first four points of the period to go back on top 18-17. Grayson County answered with a basket at the 3:53 mark to put them back in front by one, 19-18, but that would be their last lead of the night.
Breck then reeled off 10 unanswered points closing out the period and took a 10-point, 30-20 lead into the final period of play.
Coach Halee Johnston had no choice at that point and put her foul-plagued players back into the game, and her team responded. Baskets by Mikah Lee and Kiper cut the margin to six points, 30-24 with 4:47 left.
Neither team would score for more than three minutes before Kiper scored again on a put-back basket with 1:35 remaining to cut the lead to just four points, 30-26.
With the Lady Cougars pressing, Cornwell stole an inbounds pass and hit a lay-in with 1:28 remaining to make it just a two-point game, 30-28.
With less than a minute left, Tori Carroll came up with a steal, and got the ball to Cornwell in the right corner, who then drove the baseline and buried a running jumper with 19.7 seconds that capped a 10-0 Lady Cougar run and tied the score at 30-30.
The Lady Tigers responded with their only basket of the period with 12.8 seconds left as Mia Walden scored on a lay-in to make it 32-30.
With the seconds ticking down, Kiper rebounded a missed shot under the basket and was fouled with 1.6 seconds remaining as she tried to put up a shot. Kiper buried the first shot to make it a one-point game, but missed the second and Breck was able to escape with the one-point victory.
Kiper led the Lady Cougars with nine points and added three rebounds, two assists and a team-high three steals. Lee finished with eight points and pulled down three rebounds.
Cornwell had seven points and three rebounds, while Elizabeth Lindsey score four points and grabbed five rebounds. Briley Renfrow rounded out the Lady Cougar scoring with two points and she led the team in rebounds with six despite being the smallest player on the floor. Trinity Preston did not score in the game, but she contributed five rebounds to the effort.
EIGHTH-GRADE GAME
With the score tied at 4-4 with 4:23 left in the first period, the Lady Tigers closed out the first half by outscoring Grayson County 13-1 to lead by 12 points, 17-5 at the break.
The Lady Tigers dominated play from the start as they pressed the length of the floor and their quick, aggressive style of play kept the Lady Cougars from getting anything done offensively. The second half was a carbon copy of the first as the Lady Tigers again outscored the Lady Cougars 17-5 to win going away.
Breck’s Skylar Tucker led all scorers with nine points and should have had a lot more as she missed several put-back baskets under the hoop.
Raigan Cave led Grayson County with four points and seven rebounds. Cornwell scored three points, Haylee Poole had two and Riley Parks had one to complete the scoring. Parks also added five rebounds to her totals.
Annie Kiper led the seventh-graders
with nine points.
Mikah Lee scored eight points and pulled down
three rebounds in the seventh-grade game.
Raigan Cave had four points and seven
rebounds in the eighth-grade loss.
Riley Parks pulled down five rebounds
for the eighth-graders.
