Whitley Girls win

The Whitley County Lady Colonels held off the Cawood Trojanettes to win their third game of the young season, 59-48. The game was much closer than the final score indicated and led veteran coach Larry Anderson to say, “We are just not playing very well. As a unit we are not playing very well. We just have spots that we are playing decent.”
His Lady Colonels started the season with an easy win over Jellico (82-18) then a four-point victory over archrival Corbin (41-37). And, Monday night, Whitley County struggled to beat Cawood.
“We will look good one minute then make silly things happen the next,” Anderson said. “I thought we hit a four-minute spurt where we played well.”
“Some of the boys where in a wreck tonight and we were a little distracted from that,” said Anderson. “That’s not an excuse and you have to play over things like that.”
Whether it was the distraction of the five players from the boys’ basketball team that had been involved in a wreck (see A-section) or it was the Trojanettes, the Lady Colonels got off to a poor start.
Whitley County trailed Cawood 7-2 in the first four minutes but a three pointer by Holly Jones have the Lady Colonels a brief spark. Enough of a spark that saw the Lady Colonels go on a 7-4 run and take a 12-11 lead at the first stop. Senior Stephanie McCullah hit a three pointer from the top of the key followed by a Randall Holbrook basket that gave Whitley County its first lead.
Cawood’s Rebecca Hatmaker pushed her team back on top before Holbrook closed out the quarter hitting two free throws.
The lead changed hands early in the second quarter as Cawood posted the first five points for a 16-12 lead. A McCullah three-pointer pulled the Lady Colonels within a point. The eventually took the lead on a McCullah lay-up after she picked up a loose ball off a Cawood turnover.
A second turnover led to a Holbrook basket and a little breathing room for the Lady Colonels. Whitley County stretched its lead to seven at the half, 26-21.
Cawood wouldn’t go away in the second half and kept clawing back into the game. Led by junior guard Emily Boggs eight points, the Trojanettes outscored the Lady Colonels 15-7 and took a 36-35 lead into the final eight minutes.
Thanks to the efforts of 6-2 junior Amanda Brimm and McCullah, the Lady Colonels scored four straight points for a 39-36 lead.
Boggs, who had a game-high 20 points pulled her team within one point (41-40) one last time with 5:33 left in the game. A basket by Jones and a rebound basket by Brimm pushed the margin to five.
McCullah and Jones helped put the game away with a pair of three pointers. It was the spree Anderson was talking about. During a nice three-minute run, Whitley County outscored Cawood, 10-1 and stretched the lead to 55-43 when McCullah dropped in two free throws with 2:03 left in the game.
“We were not taking advantage of what they were giving us early in the game,” Anderson said. “We are trying to make things happen.”
“We’re still relatively young and it’s new for some of these kids to be starting but they work hard and I think if you work hard and your head is on right you will get better,” Anderson said.
Anderson felt the turn-around was his team’s defense. “We started doing some things defensively. We started staying in position and getting the rebounds. We were doing things that we should be doing all the time.”
“We look good in spurts,” he added. “There’s no continuity right now.”
McCullah scored a season high 17 points in the win while Holbrook added 15 points. Brimm, had her second straight double-double, with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Holly Jones finished with 13 points.
The Lady Colonels will get another big test Thursday night when they travel to South Laurel.

Whitley Co. 59, Cawood 48
Cawood 11 10 15 12- 48
Whitley Co. 12 16 7 24- 59
Cawood (48) – Burkhart 11, Williams 11, Boggs 20, Bolin 4, Hatmaker 3.
Whitley Co. (59) – McCullah 17, Holbrook 15, Brimm 13, Jones 13, Gray 1.