Lady Colonels rout Jellico

The Whitley County Lady Colonels may have struggled in the first quarter against the Jellico Lady Devils, but the final three periods belonged to coach Larry Anderson’s team. Whitley County opened the season with an easy 77-39 win over the Lady Blue Devils.
“I felt like we were too ready to play yesterday,” said Anderson. “Sometimes that works against you and some of the kids were trying too hard early to do too much and it worked against them.”
“It’s not a negative thing,” Anderson said. “You want kids to be ready to play.”
“I was pleased with their effort, just some of the things they tried to do wasn’t good but they eventually settled down and came back with some good things.”
Whitley County (1-0) jumped ahead of the Lady Devils (0-2) early in the first period, 11-5 behind the inside play of senior Kayla Haynes and sophomore Amanda Brimm. Heather Jones also added a basket in the early run.
However, in the final two minutes of the quarter, Jellico went on a 11-3 run and grabbed the lead at the end of the quarter, 16-14. Holly Jones hit a three-pointer in the Jellico run to keep Whitley County close.
It didn’t take the Lady Colonels long in the second period to take control of the game. Haynes quickly tied the score with a basket inside then the senior post player added a free throw and the Lady Colonels would own the lead for good.
A basket by Brittany Lawson and a pair of Haynes free throws pushed the lead out to 21-16.
Misty Meadows unloaded a three pointer to close the game back to two but a 4-0 run kept Whitley County in front.
After Kristen Marlow pulled Jellico back within four (25-21) with 2:41 in the half, Whitley County ended the quarter with a 10-0 run and led by double digits at the half, 35-21. Sophomore Randal Holbrook had back to back baskets while Brimm was four of four from the line. Holly Jones cashed in on the final basket of the half for a 35-21 lead.
Jellico never challenged Whitley County in the third quarter as the Lady Colonels outscored their host, 22-4 and led at the end of three, 57-25.
“We didn’t do a good job offensively or a good job checking the boards early in the game,” said Anderson. “We didn’t do a good job making passes out of the traps.”
“We were pleased with our hustle,” said Anderson. “I was very very pleased with our bench play. I felt like when we were struggling, our bench came in and picked us up. We have eight kids that are really solid right now that I feel like we can play at any time.”
“I felt like we pushed the ball well and I felt like our big kids went to the offensive boards tonight and did a really good job in there.”
Haynes led the Lady Colonels with 14 points while Holly Jones tossed in 12 points. Brimm and McCullah finished in double figures with 12 and 11 points respectively. Meadows led Jellico with nine points.
Corbin next
The Lady Colonels will dive into district play Friday night when they travel up to Corbin for the first district battle of the season.
“There’s not a lot we can prepare for against Corbin,” said Anderson. “There’s not a lot you can do, you teach things during preseason and you work on a lot of situations, ball screens, weak side screens, post defense, wing defense. Nobody can do something that you haven’t covered. We will try to scout them a little bit and see what things they try to do.”
“Basically it is getting down and playing the fundamentals,” said Anderson.

Whitley County 14 21 22 20- 77
Jellico 16 5 4 14- 39
Whitley Co. (77) – Haynes 14, McCullah 11, Brimm 12, Heather Jones 6, Osborne 3, Holly Jones 12, Holbrook 6, Lawson 2, Rucker 2, Estes 7, Deaton 2.
Jellico (39) – McClanahan 8, Blakenship 7, Marlow 9, Johnson 5, Goins 1, Meadows 9.