13th Region Girls Set

 The 13^th Region Girls’ Tournament was set this morning at THE ARENA with the top two teams, Clay County and South Laurel drawing into the lower bracket. The teams will likely face each other in the tournament semifinals Friday night.

The Whitley County Lady Colonels drew the Harlan County Lady Bears, a team they played February 18 at Whitley County. Harlan County won that game, 41-38.

Whitley County Coach Larry Anderson was pleased with his team’s draw. “Clay County is probably picked to win the region again Getting away from them was the big thing.”

“Anything can happen as we go through the regional tournament,” said Anderson. “We played everybody in the region well, if we can just score a little bit I think we can do well.”

“I think we are the dark horse in this thing,” he said. “If we come in and get hot and put some points on the boards, I think defensively we well keep ourselves in it and give ourselves a chance to win.”
“We played Harlan County and were right in the game,” Anderson said. “It is just a matter of scoring some points against them.”

Harlan County (15-8)  is led by Heather Maggard’s 17.8 ppg average. She has a host of support around her in the likes of Kall Carroll, Whitney Gilliam, Johnnie Parker, Kendra Russell and Samantha Sexton.

Harlan County defeated Bell County in the 52^nd District finals, 40-31.

The tournament will open Monday night with the Pineville Lady Lions, the 51^st District winner, taking on the North Laurel Lady Jaguars of Coach Roy Bowling, the 13^th Coach of the Year. North Laurel (19-8) opened the season at Pineville where the Lady Jaguars picked up a 57-48 win.

Pineville (12-16) is led by junior guard Chelsey Smith, the 13^th region’s leading scorer. Smith is averaging 30.1 points per game.

Pineville and North Laurel will tip-off the tournament at 6:30 with Whitley County taking on Harlan County at 8:00 p.m.

Tuesday night it will be the Clay County Lady Tigers meeting the Lynn Camp Lady ‘Cats in the first game. The Lady Tigers are the defending regional champions and lost to Ohio County in the first-round of the Houchens Industries/KHSAA State Tournament last year, 59-56.

South Laurel the 2008 region champion, will meet Bell County in the final first-round game. The Lady Cardinals defeated Whitley County to win the 50^th District Tournament. South Laurel (22-7) and Bell County (20-9) have not met this season.

The Lady ‘Cats are led by Jamie Shepherd with a 11.4 scoring average, Brittany Smith, 10.6 and Makayla Neal, 9.0. Whitney Howard and Maci Morris also provide plenty of scoring for Bell County.

The semifinals of the 13^th Region Tournament will be play Friday, March 5^th with the championship slated for Saturday, March 6^th.