Crittenden County enters this week’s 5th District Girls Basketball Tournament as the top seed and the favorite to repeat as district champions. However, as past years have shown us, the favorite can have trouble cutting down the nets at week’s end.
The Lady Rockets breezed through the regular season unbeaten. Crittenden 21-5 and saw a six-game winning streak end last week with a 76-68 loss to Hopkins County Central. That was their only loss to a region team in the regular season.
The Lady Rockets are led by the district’s all-time leading scorer, senior guard Taylor Guess, who’s averaging 23 points a game. She was named the Region Player of the Year last week by the coaches.
Freshman Anna Boone and Elliot Evans have combined to score nearly 20 points a game and grab nine rebounds.
The Lady Rockets will open against Lyon County. The Lady Lyons lost a three-way coin toss for the second and third seeds.
Lyon County lost to Crittenden County 63-40 and 67-50 during the regular season. Lyon County is 12-15 but they’ve been playing better basketball of late, winning five of their last seven games.
Trinity Taylor is the lone Lady Lyon scoring double figures at twelve points a game. Piper Cotham averages 8.7 points and Lexi Holland has upped her scoring to nearly eight points a game.
Lyon County’s key to winning is to get to the free throw line and keep the Lady Rockets off of it.
The 7:30 nightcap features two seed and host, Livingston Central, who finished the regular season at 11-17 against Trigg County, who is 10-16.
These teams split their games during the regular season. Livingston Central has lost six of seven games entering the postseason. They defeated Caldwell County 63-52 Friday. The Lady Cardinals are led by sophomore Victoria Joiner, who is averaging 15 points and ten rebounds a game.
Earlier this month, she joined the 1000-point club. Emersyn Ramage scores nearly eight points a game and grabs nine rebounds, and she’ll need to stay out of foul trouble if the Lady Cardinals are to knock off Trigg County.
The Lady Wildcats have won four of their last six games with a win over University Heights Friday sending them into the postseason.
Olivia Noffsinger is scoring nearly 16 points a game and leads the team with 62 3-pointers made.
Trigg County has to find some depth in its scoring. Kara Hyde averages nine points a game and Audrey Alexander scores seven. But no one else has higher than four points per game average.
The winners of tonight’s semifinals will meet in the championship game Thursday night at 6:00.
The entire 5th District Tournament will be broadcast on WKDZ 100.9 FM and online at wkdzradio.com.
