A Streak Ends

The Corbin Lady Redhounds halted the dominance of the Whitley County Lady Colonels with a 50th District Championship win Friday night at Barbourville High School.
Whitley County came in to the championship game looking to set a record for the most district titles in the modern era (since girls tournament play resumed in the 70s) with five in a row.
But it was the red-hot Lady Redhounds who scorched the nets for 30 points in the final eight minutes to pull away and win their 11th overall championship in the 31 district tournaments played with the current set-up. Ironically, Corbin, Knox Central and Whitley County were tied with 10 titles each going into this final setup. Corbin and Whitley County will remain in the 50th district with Williamsburg and South Laurel but Knox Central, Lynn Camp and Barbourville will join Pineville to become the new 51st.
“I’m speechless,” said a jubilant Jennifer Parsons. “It feels wonderful. These girls have earned this. We came into tonight and our motto everytime we left a time out was refuse to lose.”
“They gave it everything they had,” said Parsons. “I couldn’t be more proud of them than what I am now.”
The Lady Redhounds (24-4) jumped out to a 15-6 lead in the first quarter thanks to the shooting of Jamie Bonza, Morgan Barley and Mikka Rogers. Leading 6-4, Corbin broke open the quarter in the final three minutes as Bonza and Barley had back to back baskets before Heather Jones scored for the Lady Colonels.
Then a pair of Katie Akins free throws and a three pointer by Morgan Barley saw Corbin move ahead, 15-6.
Heather Jones made it 15-8 at the end of the quarter.
The Lady ‘Hounds extended its lead to nine (21-12) midway throught the quarter then it was Whitley’s turn to make a run.
The Lady Colonels (17-11) outscored Corbin 11-4 and pulled within two on a Stephanie McCullah basket with 1:34 in the opening half. No one scored again until the final 16 seconds when Rogers hit two free throws to put the Lady ‘Hounds ahead at the half, 27-23.
Corbin quickly extended its lead back out to seven (30-23) with a Rogers three pointer but it was the Lady Colonels scoring the next seven points. When Samantha Daugherty hit a basket with 3:22 in the third period, the game was tied at 30-30.
Akins pushed Corbin ahead 31-30 but a three point play by Daugherty gave Whitley County its first lead of the game, 33-31.
That also was the turning point for the Lady Redhounds. Corbin dominated the final ten minutes of the game. They outscored the Lady Colonels 4-0 in the final two minutes of the third quarter and outscored Whitley County, 30-9 in the final period.
“We had a letdown there for a few minnutes,” said Parsons. “Whitley County is a good team and you can’t take anything away from them. They just fought back against us.”
“We earned this,” she said. “We have worked for four years, the same group of girls and weren’t going to let somebody else cut down the nets tonight.”
“They just took it to us,” said Whitley County coach Larry Anderson. “We didn’t respond to it. We went several possessions there in the fourth quarter and didn’t score.”
“They (Corbin) went hard to the basket and we didn’t respond with that intensity,” Anderson said.
Anderson said of the second and third quarter comeback. “I was pleased with our kids, we started executing a little with our offense and our defense limited them to one look and once we got the lead I thought our kids would take control. But we had four or five possessions with the lead and didn’t do anything with it.”
“I have a happy eye and a sad eye,” Anderson joked. “I told the kids we haven’t experienced this in so long, if anything good can come out of it, it might be having to sit there and watch them (celebrate) will inspire us to get back to work for next week and even this summer.”
“Maybe they will watch them and not want to experience this again,” said Anderson. “Some of our young kids responded well and I was pleased with that.”
“We have the region this week, if we work hard, we can make some noise this week.”
Four players finished in double figures with Rogers leading the way with 17 points. Brittany Jackson added 14 while Akins tossed in 13 points. Barley had 10 points in the championship victory.
Corbin downs Central
The Lady Redhounds outscored the Lady Panthers of Knox Central 26-3 in the first quarter and never looked back . They were able to beat the hapless Panthers 72-45.
Like the championshiop game, the Lady ‘Hounds had four players in double figures with Bonza leading the way with 13 points. Barley added 12 points while Christina Sutton and Jackson added 10 points each.

50th District Final
Corbin 15 12 8 30- 65
Whitley Co. 8 15 10 9- 42
Corbin (65) – Bonza 2, Rogers 17, Clouse 4, Jackson 14, Sutton 4, Barley 10, Akins 13.
Whitley Co. (42) – Daugherty 15, Hibbs 4, Perkins 1, McCullah 4, T. Jones 2. Heather Jones 8, Osborne 6, Rucker 2.

50th District Semifinal
Knox Central 3 13 14 15- 45
Corbin 26 12 16 18- 72
Corbin (72) – Sutton 10, Bonza 13, Rogers 7, Clouse 7, Jackson 10, Barley 12, Akins 6, Wood 3, Grega 2.
Knox Central (45) – Washan 2, Messer 18, Mills 8, Sizemore 2, Benfield 6, Wilburn 2, Brown 5, Jordan 2.