The Mountain Eagle
WHITESBURG WEATHER

Lady Cougars improve to 16-4 after two wins





The Letcher County Central Lady Cougars raised their record to 16-4 with a pair of wins last week at Shelby Valley on Jan. 29, and at home against Corbin Saturday afternoon.

Last week’s pair of victories marked the third time this season that the Lady Cougars have had a string of four straight victories.

Prior to last week’s victories, coach Dickie Adams said his team had not been playing as well as they had earlier in the month. “We kind of hit a spot several weeks ago where we just let up and didn’t seem to play as hard and then over at Shelby Valley, we seemed to pick up our defense in the second half. Against Corbin, we played good defense in both the half court and the full court Maybe we’re getting our swagger back to where we’re wanting to complete more. We’ve got three weeks left (in this regular season) and we want to finish strong — even win out.”

The Lady Cougars’ deep bench is a decided advantage that coach Adams tries to use to full effect. “We can go about eight deep with no dropoff. Our six, seven and eight players are better than most people and we try to make that an issue every game. We’re at our best when we have everyone involved in the offense.”

The Lady Cougars host winless Jenkins Friday night, Feb. 6, and then travel to Irvine for a game with Estill County on Saturday afternoon before returning home to host Perry County Central next Monday, Feb. 9, in a make-up game.

Letcher Central 63

Corbin 45

Using a deadly combination of defense, balanced scoring and depth, the Lady Cougars jumped to an early 22-9 lead against visit ing Corbin Saturday afternoon and never looked back.

“We played good early,” said coach Adams, “and seemed to really click offensively. We made shots and our defense made it hard for Corbin to run their offense. I was very satisfied with our defense in the half-court and the full-court.”

With their defense controlling the Lady Redhounds, the Lady Cougars never let Corbin cut its deficit to single digits. LCCHS led 38-23 at the half and 54-37 after three quarters.

LCCHS had six players score seven or more points with three players coming off the bench and contributing 32 total points — led by eighth-grader Kelah Eldridge’s five treys and 16 points. Freshman Erica Meade scored nine points and senior Tierra Baker added seven points.

“The play of Kelah and Erica and Tierra off the bench has been a big factor for us this year. They give us valuable minutes and let others rest.”

Brittany Sexton finished with eight points while Sharaye Kincer and Haley Whitaker scored seven points each. Shannon Bays wound up with six points and Chloe Wynn added three points.

Senior Lyndsay Champlin led 8-13 Corbin with a game-high 19 points.

Letcher County Central 55

Shelby Valley 44

LCCHS’s deep bench and the outside shooting of junior guard Brittany Sexton were key factors in the visiting Lady Cougars’ win over an experienced and strong Shelby Valley team on Jan. 29.

Sexton, who finished with a game-high 23 points — including five treys, had the hot hand early as LCCHS expanded a 15-13 early second quarter lead to 32-24 by the break. Kelah Eldridge added nine points by hitting three treys and freshman guard Haley Whitaker added a pair of treys in her eight points.

LCCHS’s lead was 42-33 heading into the final quarter and Sexton kept the Lady ‘Cats at bay with eight points in the final quarter — including four-for-four from the charity line.

“We didn’t play good half-court or full-court defense like we needed,” said coach Adams, “but Shelby Valley is a nice team with experienced players. Brittany played very well but we had three more players with seven or more points to give us balanced scoring. We were moving the ball and getting it to the right people and then we hit some shots.”

Sharaye Kincer scored seven points and Erica Meade wound up with four points. Shannon Bays finished with three points and


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