Published: February 27, 2008 02:19 pm            

West moves in the right direction

Lady Comets rally in the fourth, hold the lead this time vs. rival East, 46-42

SANDY HOOK - Well, you know… the gym at Elliott County is decked out in an awful lot of maroon paint!

The West Carter varsity girls, sporting their maroon and white uniforms, made themselves at home on the court in Sandy Hook in battling past rival East Carter, 46-42, in the opening round of the 62nd District Tournament. The Lady Comets avenged a pair of earlier-season losses to East Carter by taking a big first-half lead then overcoming a late Lady Raider rally to gain Thursday’s championship game. And the host schools’ décor of maroon and black seemed to sit well with the Lady Comet club.

“We had to go into this game with all that pressure of knowing they’d beaten us twice already this season. That pressure was in our heads,” Lauren Carper, who hit only her sixth three-pointer of the season with just :58 remaining in the contest to give West the lead for good, told The Journal-Times about taking the floor against the top-seeded East Carter club.

“We all kept each other going and we’d been talking about it at practice leading up to this,” she said. “We knew we had to stay in it and we couldn’t fold.”

Von Perry’s team had a seven-point lead and the ball with just a few minutes left last month in Grayson before the hosts turned things around to take that win.

But not this time.

After trading the lead nine times, the rivals went rebound for rebound and basket for basket until late in the final frame. With just 2:17 separating the girls from Grayson and their appointment in the final, Brittany Dearfield grabbed a defensive rebound and converted at the other end for the 41-37 lead. Then West went on a 9-1 run to close out the latest matchup in arguable the best rivalry in the state.

“What I was thinking there was like déjà vu, here we go again, just like at their place when we had the lead,” Perry said of the similarities to this situation and the ending of the last clash between the two Carter County clubs in late January. “But the kids didn’t lose their heads and we put in different plays to break their press there at the end -- these girls have really grown up a lot since that loss to East the last time.”

None more than Carper. The pint-size ball handler hit that monstrous trifecta bucket and had two big defensive stops, not to mention a pair of free throws with just :33 to go.

“I was nervous there at the very end -- but that loss to them earlier really motivated us to win this time.”

East Carter’s lone senior Brianna Buck sank one of two from the stripe to pull within two, 44-42, at :17.

But Sydnie Cox of West Carter was fouled with just 11 ticks remaining and by making the first throw Perry’s bunch was up three. Lakota Burge muscled her way to the glass and came down with the rebound and the Lady Raiders got the look to level. But Brittany Tackett blocked Kristin Easterling’s three-point attempt then she was followed on the ensuing lock up. Tackett, with just :01 showing on the game clock, nailed the first attempt that gave the game its final tally.

“We made a couple of mistakes on defense and we gave them some good looks,” East Carter bench boss Hager Easterling said. “We worried too much about winning and not playing how we are supposed to play basketball. We dug that big hole and that gave them a lot of momentum.”

Monica Stevens and Kristin Perry each had 11 points to pace West win the win. Cox added seven and Tackett and Brittany Oney each hit for a half-dozen. Carper put in five points. Burge scored a game-best 18 points for East Carter and Lindsay Combs added eight points. Dearfield finished up with six.

“ We just weren’t ready to play,” Buck said of her final game suting up for the Lady Raiders. “We were nervous and they played real hard in that first half. We matched that intensity for most of the second half. We knew they’d come ready to play and they really played hard, that didn’t surprise us at all.”

Cox, the only senior on Perry’s roster, talked about the Lady Comets overcoming adversity and proving a lot to themselves.

“This win really does feel great and we had reached our breaking point but we responded,” she said. “It’s a great feeling to achieve what we always knew we could do.”

West Carter will face the Elliott County/Morgan County winner in the 62nd District Tournament final this Thursday night at 7 p.m. By gaining the championship, West automatically advances into next week’s 16th Region Tournament.

        

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