For 13 straight years, no one other than the Grayson County Lady Cougar basketball team had been able to lay claim to being the champions of the 12th District in Kentucky, but that all came to an end Thursday evening in Whitesville as the Edmonson County LadyCats put on an unbelievable exhibition of outside shooting as they annihilated the Lady Cougars 55-29 in the final.
Senior Caitlyn Simon, a Miss Kentucky Basketball candidate, hit five shots from behind the arc and finished with a game-high 21 points. Her senior running-mate, point guard Peyton Martin, hit four threes and finished with 20 points to lead the way for the LadyCats.
Grayson County came into the game off a horrible shooting night in their opener against Whitesville Trinity, but were much more competitive in the early going. They jumped out to an early 6-3 lead following Hannah Saltsman’s 10-foot, turn-around jumper in the lane at the 4:50 mark of the first quarter, but the LadyCats responded with a 9-0 run to lead 12-6 at the 2:03 mark. They led by seven points, 15-8 heading into the second quarter.
After Simon scored on a put-back basket to open the second quarter to push the lead to nine points, Grayson County responded with nine unanswered points, including back-to-back threes from senior Brandi Minton, and suddenly the score was tied 17-17 and the Lady Cougar contingent in the stands was going nuts.
That’s when the wheels began to come off for Grayson County.
A Simon three at 2:16 was followed by a Martin three at 1:31 to make it 23-17. Following a Lady Cougar miss, Martin drove the length of the floor for a lay-up and was fouled with 47 seconds left. Her made free throw capped a 9-0 run and gave her team a nine-point advantage at the halftime break, 26-17.
Edmonson then put the game beyond reach in the third quarter by burying seven three-pointers and outscoring the Lady Cougars 21-9. That gave them an insurmountable 21-point lead, 47-26 at the start of the fourth quarter.
In all, the LadyCats hit 11 shots from behind the three-point line. For those of you not well versed in math, that adds up to 33 points in a game in which their opponent scored just 29 points. Not a winning combination for Grayson County.
Saltsman led the Lady Cougars with 11 points and six rebounds and was named to the All-Tournament Team following the game along with Minton, who had 10 points including three treys.
Laura Vincent added four points, while Kenzie Renfrow and Ella Robinson rounded out the scoring with two points apiece.
Senior Mackenzie Edwards was named to the 12th District All-Academic Team along with Butler County’s Maddie Murphy, Trinity’s Erin Kinsey, and Edmonson’s Abby Alexander..
Named to the regular season 12th District Team were Saltsman and Renfrow for Grayson County, Murphy and Maddie Cardwell for Butler County, Cassidy Morris and Nina Wathen from Trinity, and Simon and Martin from Edmonson County.
Finally, along with Saltsman and Minton, the All Tournament Team consisted of Martin, Simon and Katlin Collins, from Edmonson, Morris from Trinity and Murphy from Butler County.
By Don Brown, Local Sports
Reach Don at donbrown@k105.com
The 12th District All Tournament Team. Front row,
L-R: Katlin Collins, Peyton Martin and Caitlyn Simon,
from Edmonson County. Back row, L-R: Hannah Saltsman
and Brandi Minton from Grayson County, Maddie Murphy,
from Butler County, and Cassidy Morris, from Trinity.
The regular season 12th District Team. Front row, L-R:
Kenzie Renfrow and Hannah Saltsman, Grayson County,
Caitlyn Simon and Peyton Martin, Edmonson County.
Back row, L-R: Maddie Cardwell and Maddie Murphy,
Butler County, Nina Wathen and Cassidy Morris, Trinity.
