Call it fortitude. Call it resilience. Call it gumption. Call it whatever you want, but whatever you call it the Crittenden County Lady Rockets had it in abundance Wednesday evening at the Owensboro Sportscenter. The Lady Rockets survived a first half where very little went right and somehow found a way to advance to the quarterfinals of the All A Classic state tournament.
Jordyn Hodge’s 3-pointer with 7:39 to go in the game gave Crittenden County the lead for the first time of the night. It was a lead they would not relinquish, as the Lady Rockets ran away from Martin County in the fourth quarter to take a 51-32 win in the opening round of the All A Classic.
Make no mistake, however, the final score is not indicative of just what the Lady Rockets had to do to get this one in the win column.
The game started off just about as bad as it could for Crittenden County. Martin County hit the Lady Rockets with an 11-0 run to open the game. The Lady Rockets could not find the basket, even going 0 for 6 at the free throw line in the first eight minutes. The Lady Cardinals were controlling the glass and getting second and third shots.
It was just about as bad a start as it could have possibly been for the Lady Rockets. Still, they were just down 15-6 after the opening quarter. Three-pointers from Chloe May and Sophie Harless helped the Lady Cardinals get some early distance in the game.
The shooting did not get much better for Crittenden County in the second quarter. In fact, for the first half, the Lady Rockets hit just 7 of 25 from the floor during the first 16 minutes for 28 percent.
But, there were a couple of signs of developing trends that had Rocket fans feeling hopeful as the game went to the half. One was that, after shooting 66.7 percent in the first quarter, Martin County shot just 30.8 percent in the second quarter. Secondly, the Lady Cardinals indicated that they did not like having the defensive pressure turned up against them, as evidenced by their 13 first half turnovers.
Getting some big first half moments from Bristyn Rushing, who was matched up against Martin County’s 6-4 freshman Maci Maynard inside, the Lady Rockets trimmed the deficit to 23-16 at the half.
Trailing 29-21 midway through the third, to reference an old George Thorogood song, the Lady Rockets got it going by being ‘Bad to the Boone.’ Anna Boone, who had scored just two first half points on 2 of 6 at the line, started attacking the basket. She attacked the basket, attacked the basket, and then attacked the basket some more.
And, while Boone did not make a field goal in the third, she drew fouls and started knocking down the free throws. Boone hit 8 of 10 free throws in the quarter and Crittenden County kicked off a run that would stretch over the end of the third quarter and the beginning of the fourth.
Crittenden County scored the final seven points of the third to close the gap to 29-28 heading into the final quarter. The Lady Rockets then opened the final quarter with a 15-1 spurt that forcefully slammed the door on Martin County’s hopes of advancing to the quarter-finals.
After Hodge’s three that gave Crittenden County the lead, Anna Boone buried a three that made it 34-30 and at that point, you could see the legs starting to fade on the Lady Cardinals, who would score just three free throws in the final quarter.
Once they got to the lead, the Lady Rockets put the ball in the hands of freshman point guard Jordyn Hodge, who went 9 of 10 at the line to help the Lady Rockets leave the Lady Cardinals standing in their wake.
Anna Boone was one of three Lady Rockets in double figures with 17 points. Jordyn Hodge added 16 while Bristyn Rushing finished with 10.
Sophie Harless led Martin County with 9 points. Maci Maynard added 7 for the Lady Cardinals.
After being outrebounded by 13 in the first half, the Lady Rockets won the battle of the boards by 7 in the second half.
After struggling to shoot the ball most of the night, Crittenden County was money when it mattered. In the fourth quarter, the Lady Rockets were 5 of 7 from the field, 2 of 2 from three-point land, and 11 of 12 at the free throw line.
Crittenden County improves to 15-3 with the win, which was their 7th straight. The Lady Rockets advance to the quarterfinals for the second straight season and will play again Friday afternoon at 1:00 against Whitefield Academy out of Louisville. Whitefield Academy advanced in Wednesday night’s late game with a 35-30 win over Knott County Central.
