While the Todd County Central Rebels ended a long skid in the opening game of the night Friday, the Russellville Lady Panthers could not repeat the feat in the nightcap of the 13th District doubleheader in Elkton.
It was not easy by any means, but the Todd County Central Lady Rebels battled their way through outside shooting struggles and some ballhandling woes to eventually subdue the Lady Panthers 67-45.
The Lady Panthers opened the game defensively almost daring Todd County Central to shot from behind the arc and the Lady Rebels were more than willing to oblige. The problem for the Lady Rebels was that not many of those shots were falling to start the game. And that allowed the Lady Panthers to hang around for a while.
The game was tied at 9-9 and 11-11 in the first quarter before the Lady Rebels scored the final four points to take a 15-11 lead after one. JaMya Kay was the only Todd County Central player to make a three in the first eight minutes and she had two of them to help the Lady Rebels get in front.
Jordyn Shemwell hit a three to open the second quarter and that was like the one that broke the dam open, not just offensively, but on the defensive end as well. The Todd County Central defense started to turn the Lady Panthers over and that sparked the Lady Rebel offense.
After scoring the final four points of the first quarter, the Lady Rebels opened the second quarter with nine straight points to compete a 13-0 run and take a 24-11 lead.
Getting some big play from Alexis Taylor and Kathryn Ballard, the Lady Rebels continued to hold a double digit lead until late in the half. Leading 34-23, things took an unkind turn for the Lady Rebels.
Give Russellville credit, it would have been easy to pack it up at that point, having come into the night with a 15-game losing streak, but the Lady Panthers did not. Russellville knocked down some threes and the Lady Rebels got a little too enamored with shooting from beyond the arc, and the two teams went into the half with the Todd County Central lead down to 36-29.
Early in the third, Russellville was still hanging around at 39-33, but then the Lady Rebels dropped the hammer for good. Todd County Central cranked up the pressure on defense and on the offensive end they started attacking the basket more. And while their outside shots were not falling the way they would like, the Lady Rebels took advantage of some third quarter trips to the free throw line.
Todd County Central grabbed control of the game with a 12-0 run that pushed the lead out to 51-33. Russellville hit back with a quick five points to make it 51-38 after three. Free throws were big for Todd County Central in the quarter as the Lady Rebels were 10 of 14 at the charity stripe.
Jordyn Shemwell bagged a couple of three as part of an 8-0 run early in the final quarter than ran the lead out to 20 points at 60-40 and from there it would be just a matter of settling the final score.
Four Lady Rebels hit double figures in the game led by Jordyn Shemwell and JaMya Kay with 15 points each. Alexis Taylor added 14 points, while Kathryn Ballard ended up with 12. Daymea Garrett just missed out on double figures with 8.
Russellville got 12 points each from Mariyah Merriweather and M’Riyah Boyd. Madison Kimbrough ended up with 9 points for the Lady Panthers.
The Lady Rebels go to 14-11 with the win and now are set to hit the road Saturday to take on 1st Region contender Marshall County. It will be the third meeting between the two teams this season.
One Response
Please put cage scores!!!