WHITLEY ELIMINATED

Coming into the 13^th Region Tournament Whitley County Coach Larry Anderson hoped his team would show a bit of offense and get on a roll. That didn’t happen Monday night in the first-round of the tournament as the Harlan County Lady Bears, 45-32, ousted the Lady Colonels.

Ten Lady Colonels scored in the game, but no one had more than six points for Whitley County, who fell to 12-18 for the season.

“That was normal,” said Anderson. “Defensively we played well. We just put so much pressure on our defense that we were not scoring. Every mistake we made look like three mistakes right now.”

“I really can’t explain it,” he said. “We had some games over the summer were we scored well, but it seemed like we lost our confidence as the season went on. We don’t have a dominate scorer that we can go to in situations and I think that is probably the biggest thing right there.”

However, Monday night’s loss didn’t come from the field or turnovers. It came from the free throw line where Harlan County hit 23-of-33 free throws compared to Whitley County’s 5-of-11.

The Lady Colonels outscored Harlan County from the field 27-22. Whitley County hit 3-of-10 from long distance while the Lady Bears failed to score from 3-point range on their two attempts. Harlan County won the battle of the boards 20-16, but turned the ball over 16 times compared to Whitley County’s 14.

“We got a lot of shots and some good looks, but couldn’t knock them down,” said Anderson. “Their guards were real aggressive and the have the inside players to battle you one-on-one. They can take you out of some things, but still yet if we finish those shots that we need, we are in the game.”

In the first half, Whitley County out-shot the Lady Bears from the floor 6-5, but was out-shot from the line 7-0. “The had five field goals to our six and they had seven free throws to our zip, so it is hard to beat that kind of combination,” Anderson said.

“Of course they were taking it inside quite a bit,” he added. “The officiating didn’t play a role in it. It didn’t have anything to do with the game tonight; we just didn’t finish when we needed to. That was basically it.”

Harlan County (15-8) took control from the outset and only once was the game tied. Leanna Moses tied the game at 2-2, before the Lady Bears went on a 6-0 run and led 8-2. Whitley County didn’t score for six minutes and that came when Simbree Sizemore scored with less than a second left in the quarter on inbounds play at the buzzer.

Harlan County opened the second quarter with a three-point play by Whitney Gilliam and the Lady Bears led 11-4. However, the Lady Colonels went on a 5-0 run as Sierra Anderson hit a 3-pointer and Bethany Powers followed with a basket to pull Whitley County within 11-9 at the 4:43 mark of the period.

However, the offense disappeared once again and the Lady Bears scored the next eight points and led 19-9 when Kalee Carroll hit a free throw with 1:08 left in the quarter.

Powers closed out the half with a 3-pointer and the Lady Colonels went to the dressing room down, 19-12.

Jade Jones opened the third quarter with a three-point play that saw Whitley County pull within 19-15. The Lady Colonels kept the game close with baskets by Brittany Leach, Jones and Kandace Craig.

The Lady Bears stretched the lead back out to eight (29-21) before Megan Blakley ended the quarter with a basket.

Harlan County pulled away in the fourth quarter, scoring 14 of their 16 points from the free throw line. Miranda Davenport scored the lone field goal for the Lady Bears, which came with 2:12 left in the contest.

Both teams struggled from the field. Whitley County didn’t hit their first field goal until Moses scored with 2:02 left in the game.

Powers and Jones topped the Whitley County scoring with six points each. Carroll’s 10 points led the Lady Bears.

Harlan Co. 45, Whitley Co. 32

Whitley Co.     4    8  10  10- 32

Harlan Co.       8  11  10  16- 45

   Whitley County (32) – Smith 0, Sizemore 1, Moses 2, Leach 5, Craig 2, Daniels 2, Powers 6, Jones 6, Blakley 2, Anderson 3, Holbrook 2.

   Harlan Co. (45) – Gilliam 7, Carroll 10, Russell 1, Parker 7, Maggard 8, Smith 2, Davenport 9, Constant 1.