YSE File Photo
It was time for a little payback Saturday afternoon for the Christian County Lady Colonels. After falling to McCracken County 53-40 two weeks ago, the Lady Colonels used a suffocating 2nd half defensive effort to knock off the Lady Mustangs 50-41 in the quarterfinals of the winner’s bracket of the Lady Invitational of the South at Allen County-Scottsville.
Both teams had their struggles shooting the ball early. McCracken County took a 13-12 lead after the first quarter and nudged that lead out to 25-21 at the half.
The Lady Mustangs shot 40.9 percent in the opening half while the Lady Colonels connected on just 32 percent of their shots.
The good news for the Lady Colonels was that their shooting was about to get better. The bad news for the Lady Mustangs was that theirs was going to head in the other direction.
Christian County turned up the defense over the final 16 minutes of the game and held the Lady Mustangs to just 17.4 percent shooting over the last two quarters. In the same time frame, the Lady Colonels heated up and connected on 52.2 percent from the field.
The Lady Colonels held McCracken County to just nine points in the third as Christian County came from behind to take a 37-34 lead after three.
Christian County’s defense got even stingier in the final quarter, holding the Lady Mustangs to just 7 points as the Lady Colonels moved out to the nine-point win.
NeVaeh Day continues to establish herself as one of the best players in Western Kentucky as she led the Lady Colonels with 19 points, 4 blocks, and 3 steals. Junior Anaysia Bagwell also reached double figures with 16 points. Lazarie Daniel ended up with 6 points and 6 rebounds.
For McCracken County, Ava Hughes was the only player to hit double digits with 13 points. Reagan Hill added 8 for the Lady Mustangs.
Christian County won the battle of the boards, outrebounding the Lady Mustangs 37-32.
Christian County improves to 8-6 with the win and advances to Sunday’s semifinals in the LIS.
