The Dawson Springs Lady Panthers may have felt like it was a hurricane rather than ‘a Storm’ Tuesday evening in Mortons Gap. The Hopkins County Central Lady Storm unleashed two ‘thunderous’ runs in the first half of the game on the way to rolling past the Lady Panthers 77-13 in a 7th District girls’ contests.
After the Lady Panthers scored the first point of the game on a free throw from Briley Sawyer, the Lady Storm scored the next 29 points of the game to grab a 29-1 lead and deliver an early knockout blow to the Lady Panther hopes of pulling the district upset. Hopkins County Central scored the last three points of the first to take a 32-3 lead.
The Lady Storm half-court defense created several Lady Panther turnovers that resulted in runouts and quick scores for Hopkins County Central.
Those three points were the first points of a 20-0 run that saw the Lady Storm lead swell to 49-3. Hopkins County Central held a 52-7 lead at the half. The Lady Storm were able to expand the lead with reserves seeing a big chunk of action in the second quarter.
Kenzleigh Harrison and Calajia Mason had big halves for the Lady Storm. Harrison had 12 points and Mason added 11 in the first 16 minutes of the game.
With the running clock in play at the beginning of the second half, things played out quickly from there. The Lady Storm unleashed another run to start the second half, this one a 13-0 blast that pushed the lead out to 65-7. The third quarter ended with Hopkins County Central up 68-10.
Several middle school players who recently came up to the high school program when their season finished saw action for Coach Phillip Cotton’s Lady Storm over the final eight minutes and continued to build on the lead as Hopkins County Central rode out the win.
Kenzleigh Harrison led the way for the Lady Storm with 16 points. Calajia Mason added 13 points. Mason also had several steals and a handful of blocks for Hopkins County Central. Tyah White just missed double figures with 9 points.
For Dawson Springs, Baylee Swatzell and Briley Sawyer scored three points each.
Hopkins County Central (4-2) has now won four games in a row and heads of to Gatlinburg to begin play Thursday in a holiday event in the Smoky Mountains.
Dawson Springs (3-3) is off until January 3 when the Lady Panthers go on the road to Caldwell County.
