District Leader

The South Laurel Lady Cardinals may have shutdown the inside game of the Corbin Lady Redhounds, but they were unable to stop the outside as Corbin defeated the Laurel County girls Monday night, 54-38.
“That the advantage of our team compared to other teams,” said Corbin coach Jennifer Parsons. “Any given night we can have a different scorer, Katie (Akins) had six points tonight and 25 the other night against a very good Bell County team. So, I think that is key, nobody can look at us or scout us and key in on one person.”
Proof positive. Corbin led at the first stop, 12-7 with five different players getting in the scorebook for the Lady Redhounds. Mikkah Rogers and Brittany Jackson scored the first four points of the game, then after South Laurel caught the Lady ‘Hounds at 4-4, Rogers and Katie Akins pushed Corbin ahead 8-4.
Julie Jones and Heather Clouse added points before the break to give the host a five point lead. Rogers basket midway through the quarter gave Corbin the lead for good.
Corbin (4-0) took a 15-7 lead after Brittany Jackson hit one of two free throws and refused to let the defending 12th region champions back in the game.
An 8-0 run in the second quarter pushed the Corbin lead into double digits after Clouse and Christina Sutton hit back to back three pointer for a 27-13 lead.
South Laurel (2-2) cut the lead to 12 by the end of the period and Corbin went into the dressing room with a 29-17 lead.
While the Corbin defense took away the Lady Cardinals outside game South Laurel tried to pound it inside to Amber Neace and Lauren Wombles. “That’s something we wanted to do, we knew that they could shoot Wombles and Neace from the outside. We wanted to pressure up,” said Parsons.
“We got beat a few times one the baseline which I was not too happy with but that’s what you get when you are pressuring up,” Parsons said. “Help side defense could have been a little better but overall I was pleased with the pressure.”
Corbin pretty much put the Lady Cardinals away early in the third quarter. After a Jackson free throw, Sutton scored on a put-back then unloaded a three pointer for a 35-19 lead in the game.
A South Laurel time-out couldn’t help as Rogers scored on a put back and Sutton added another three pointer for a 40-22 lead. The Lady Cardinals were able to cut the lead down to 12 by the end of the third quarter (42-30).
“We’re getting leads and letting teams get right back in it,” Parsons said. And that happened once again. Porcha Justice cut the lead to ten (46-36) with 4:21 left in the game. But the Lady Redhounds did answer with a pair of Akins free throws ad a basket by Jackson for a 50-36 lead with 3:26 left on the clock.
Corbin was able to kill some time off the clock while adding four pointers for the 16-point win.
“We got as much as 20 points ahead, within minutes it was down to 10 points and that was the same situation against Bell County. We have to learn to stay on top and keep our composure.” said Parsons.
Clouse led four double figure scorers for Corbin with 13 points. Sutton finished with 11 points while Rogers and Jackson added 10 points. Amber Neace led all scorers with 19 points. Wombles tossed in 10 points.
The Lady Redhounds will return to action Monday, December 19 when they take on the Bryan Station Lady Defenders in the first-round of the Northern Exposure Classic at Boone County. Corbin will take on Conner Tuesday then meet Simon Kenton Wednesday. The tournament championship round will be play Thursday.

Corbin 54, South Laurel 38
South Laurel 7 10 13 8- 38
Corbin 12 17 13 13- 54
South Laurel (38) – Neace 19, McWhorter 4, Smith 2, Wombles 10, Justice 2, Sizemore 1.
Corbin (54) – Rogers 10, Clouse 13, Jackson 10, Sutton 11, Akins 6, Jones 4.