Girls 50th District

If you look at the ratings, you will see Corbin and four-time defending champion, Whitley County stand atop the 50th District standings. When coaches Jennifer Parsons (Corbin) and Larry Anderson (Whitley County) pulled their numbers from the bottle at Wednesday’s district meeting the two annual powers landed in opposite brackets.
“Right now, Corbin and I are probably considered to be the favorites in the district, so it was good to see us both in opposite brackets,” said Anderson. “If we play our way through then we would get to be in the finals and that’s the way you want it to be.”
Based on season stats, Corbin (17-3) is the number one team in the district. The Lady Redhounds own wins over Barbourville (61-21), Knox Central (67-37), Lynn Camp (55-38) and Whitley County (30-25). They were scheduled to play Williamsburg at home last night.
Anderson said he would like to get his team healthy before tournament time. “We have not had a team healthy this year. It’s been a strange year for us,” he said. “Beginning with Stacy Perkins, November 6. She came back for a week of practice then went down with the flu Monday. Tracy Jones and Stephanie McCullah both played with the flu last night and we had those injuries with Puddie (Hibbs), Stephanie and Heather Jones. It’s been one thing after the other.”
“We have not had a full team in practice all year long,” said Anderson. “Right now I would like to have everybody there to be able to coach them.”
“Coming into it, you know you have to beat everybody anyway,” said Corbin’s Parsons. “And our goal is to win the district not just the first game, so in order to do that you have to play everybody. We have played all the teams except for Williamsburg, and we play them tonight, so we will know how we stack up with everyone in our bracket.”
“I would have liked to play during the week, I hate that we have to wait until Thursday,” said Parsons. “Hopefully, we will just have to play the two games.”
“Our goal is to win the district and be ready for that game (championship),” said Parsons.
“It’s just the luck of the draw and I knew since I was going first, I would have to wait it out to see who was in our bracket,” said Parsons. “We feel confident going in and there was no team that I did or didn’t want to draw.”
“Hopefully, we will put together a good game against the winner of Knox Central and Williamsburg and get into the regional and be able to get a good seed in the region,” said Parsons.
“If you go with the records of the teams, it seems it really balanced out.” she added. “Last year it did not work out that way but that’s always the luck of the draw.”
The tournament opens Monday, February 28 with the Whitley County Lady Colonels taking on host Barbourville at 6:30. Whitley County defeated the Lady Tigers earlier in the season, 61-25 at Whitley County.
Tuesday’s game will see the Knox Central Lady Panthers take on the Lady Jackets of Williamsburg. Williamsburg won their annual meeting, 56-45 at Williamsburg.
In the first semifinals, Lynn Camp will face the Whitley County-Barbourville winner on March 2 with Corbin taking on the Knox Central-Williamsburg winner March 3.
The girls’ final is slated for March 4 at 6:30. All tournament games will be played at Barbourville High School. It’s the first time the Tigers have hosted the district since opening its new complex.
The teams will use the next two weeks to prepare for post-season play. The countdown is on…March Madness begins February 28.