Closing out the quarterfinal round of the girls First Region All “A” Classic on Thursday night was a battle between the Carlisle County Lady Comets and Christian Fellowship Lady Eagles. A similar meeting just a few weeks ago ended in favor of the Lady Eagles, but a determined Lady Comets team avenged that loss, claiming a 37-34 win to advance to the championship game.
This will be the second straight First Region All “A” Classic championship game the Lady Comets will make their appearance in as they won the title last season over Christian Fellowship 64-42.
Despite the end result, it was CFS who maintained the lead throughout most of the game, getting things going with the first bucket of the night. That lead was quickly built to 10-3 as a tough full court press from the Lady Eagles midway through the opening quarter proved trying for Carlisle County. A deep ball by Carlisle County’s Malle McGee cut the deictic to 10-6 at the 1:20 mark and that is how the first quarter ended.
Kiera Whitaker started the second quarter off with a fast break layup, but a 6-0 run by CFS would build their lead to 16-8 with just over a minute and a half left to play. Whitaker once again added points to stop the run to make it a 16-10 game which quickly turned into a 16-14 score before CFS could add another bucket, ending the half 18-14.
“I’m proud of the girls,” Carlisle County head coach Ember Wright said. “Tonight on the board I wrote ‘Do the little things.’ We had to control the tempo of the game, which I thought we did well and we did what we wanted defensively.”
Coach Wright stressed to her team at the halftime break the importance of not letting CFS get second or third looks from offensive rebounds which the Lady Eagles had several of in the opening half. She was pleased at that change in the second half, which played a big role in the Lady Comets win.
It didn’t take long for Carlisle County to tie the game up; doing exactly what their coach instructed them to do in the locker room. The score got knotted up at the 18-18 mark and again at the 22-22 mark, but it wasn’t until 24-24 that the Lady Comets were able to control the lead. That 24-24 score say from the 2:15 point in the third quarter until the opening points of the fourth quarter when Macee Hogancamp knocked down a pair of free throws.
Of course, as was par for the game throughout the night, the score remained close, even being tied back up once more and 26-26. From that point on though, Carlisle County controlled the lead, and led by as many as five points with less than 30 second to play. A total of nine points were made from the charity stripe by the Lady Comets, ultimately sealing the deal for their win. Whitaker shot 5-for-6 from the line in that final stretch, with Hogancamp adding three of her own and Abree Warren adding one of her own.
Christian Fellowship made one last attempt to cut the deficit when Jayden Jackson nailed a 3-pointer just before the buzzer, making it a final 37-34 ball game.
Carlisle County was led in scoring by Whitaker who led all scorers with 15 points. Gracyn Edging followed with eight points, Hogancamp had six, McGee had five and Warren added three.
For Christian Fellowship Jackson and Gracie Howard led the way with 12 points each, Lillian Burnett and Alyssa Warren had four and Renee Shields two.
