DISTRICT CHAMPS

 The Whitley County Lady Colonels are the 2012 district champions. Whitley County won the title Thursday night on their home court by beating the Corbin Lady Redhounds, 64-40.

It was the third time this season that the Lady Colonels had beaten the Lady Redhounds. Will the two meet one more time? If they do it will be in the championship of the 13^th Region Tournament next week at The Arena.

Sophomore center Kandace Craig had the big game for the Lady Colonels, scoring 23 points and pulling down 10 rebounds for a double double.

Sophomore Brandi Smith added 15 points and Bethany Powers added 13 points in the win. Miranda Wilson led Corbin with 11 points and 10 points by sophomore Sarah Ashley.

“We knew coming in that Corbin was a scrappy team,” Whitley County Coach Larry Anderson said. “Jennifer (Parsons) does a great job with them and they harass you everywhere on the court.”

“They made a couple of runs at us, but our kids got their composure back and once they started attacking what they were doing and making the adjustments then we started scoring on the changes they had made,” Anderson said.

“I thought we had a lot of one-on-one stuff in the first half that disrupted our routine pattern of play,” he said. “We came out in the second half of moving the ball around and got better on defense as well.”

Whitley County (23-6) jumped out to a 9-2 lead and led at the end of the first quarter 14-8. The Lady Colonels extended the lead to double figures in the second quarter and went ahead, 19-8 on back-to-back baskets by Powers and Smith.

Powers had eight of her team’s 16 points in the second quarter as Whitley County posted a 30-19 lead at the half.

The Lady Colonels pushed the lead out to 15 points (42-27) before Corbin made a run and cut the lead to nine points, 43-34 as Miranda Wilson, Kristen Fothergill and Brooklyn Ashurst scored for the Lady Redhounds.

But, Whitley County regrouped after a time-out with 3:29 left in the quarter and outscored the Lady Redhounds, 6-0.

The Whitley County defense stepped up in the final eight minutes and held Corbin to six points while adding 15 points for a 64-40 win.

The Corbin cheerleaders were named the district champions of the in-game competition while Whitley County was the runner-up.

Whitley Co. 64, Corbin 40

Corbin                 8  11  15    6- 40

Whitley Co.            14  16  19  15- 64

   Corbin (40) – Blackburn 6, Miranda Wilson 11, Kayla Wilson 0, Ashley 10, Disney 6, Fothergill 5, Ashurst 2.

   Whitley Co. (64) – Jones 2, Dingess 1, Powers 13, Smith 15, Craig 23, Johnson 2, Anderson 6, Sizemore 1.