After stubbing their toe against Trigg County Monday night, which was the Lyon County Lady Lyons 6th game in ten days, some may have wondered just how much gas the Lady Lyons would have in their tank when they arrived in Richmond for their game against the Campbellsville Lady Eagles in the first round of the Girls’ All A Classic. Turns out the Lady Lyons found some “premium” performance high-octane on the road before they arrived at McBrayer Arena.
In a game where the Lady Lyons trailed only once, that coming at 3-2, Lyon County impressively handled Campbellsville 59-40 to advance to Friday morning’s quarterfinals. It was a performance where the Lyon County defense simply stifled an opponent into submission.
Trailing at 3-2, Lyon County ripped off seven straight to take a 9-3 lead. Baskets by Calista Collins, Hadlie Butler, and Lilly Perry gave the Lady Lyons a lead they would not surrender for the rest of the game. The quarter would end with the Lyon County leading Campbellsville 13-5. The Lady Lyon defense controlled the quarter, allowing Campbellsville just one field goal in the first eight minutes.
The Lady Eagles would trim the lead to 19-15 with 5:41 to go in the second quarter. Just over three minutes later, when Rose Smith scored on a putback, the Lady Lyons had scored ten straight to run the lead out to 29-15. The Lyon County lead would be 33-22.
Calista Collins controlled the paint during the first half, coming up with ten points and just being stronger than anyone Campbellsville could put on the court.
The Lady Eagles struggled to find good shots against the Lyon County defense in the opening half and that was something that would not change over the final sixteen minutes of the game either.
In the two previous trips for the Lady Lyons to the All A Classic, teams struggled to get the ball in the basket. That was not the case for Lyon County on the day, and especially not in the third quarter. Campbellsville was desperately looking for a chance to make a run back into the game, and the Lady Lyons just simply would not let that happen.
In the third quarter, Lyon County essentially put the game away by blistering the nets, shooting 8 of 9 from the field for 88.9-percent. For the game, Lyon County would shoot 26 of 53 for just under 50-percent.
After leading by as many as 18, the Lyon County Lady Lyons would hold a 50-33 lead going into the final quarter.
There was a brief moment of hope for Campbellsville when their leading scorer Briante Gowdy drained a three to open the fourth quarter to cut the lead to 14 at 50-36. But that brief moment of hope was smothered out when Lexi Holland delivered effectively the final dagger with a three out of the left corner to make it 53-36 with 5:01 to go.
Plus, the Lyon County defense would shut out the Lady Eagles from Gowdy’s three at 7:28 to go until the 2:47 mark to lock up the win.
Lyon County got a superb afternoon from Calista Collins with 17 points and 8 rebounds. Rose Smith added 10 points. Lilly Perry chipped in with 8 points and 8 rebounds. Hadlie Butler had 8 points. And, Lexi Holland came off the bench with a significant contribution of 7 points and 2 rebounds.
Campbellsville’s leading scorer Briante Gowdy had 14 points but had to work to get it, as Lyon County limited her to 3 of 12 from the field. Lainey Watson added 9 points for the Lady Eagles.
Lyon County controlled the glass, outrebounding the Lady Eagles 37-23. Lyon County also forced Campbellsville into 18 turnovers, turning them into 19 points.
Lyon County improves to 12-9 with the win and now moves on to Friday morning’s quarterfinals, where they will take on Covington Holy Cross at 10:00am eastern time in McBrayer Arena.
