The 7th grade Lady Cougar basketball team won the championship of the Green River Valley Conference Thursday evening in Cougar Gym, 36-32 over the top-seeded Ohio County Lady Eagles.
The Lady Cougars led by 11 points at the start of the fourth quarter, then had to hold on down the stretch as the Lady Eagles ran off 10 unanswered points to pull to within one of the lead with 2:24 left to play. The Lady Cougars then outscored Ohio County 5-2 the rest of the period to pull out the win.
Payton Bowman scored 13 points to lead all scorers and just missed a double-double night by pulling down nine rebounds.
This was a close game from the start. Grayson County led by one, 5-4 at the end of the first period and the score was tied 13-13 at the half.
The Lady Cougars then used a 10-0 run near the start of the third period to take a nine-point lead, 23-14 with 1:56 left in the period. They led by eight, 28-20 heading into the fourth quarter.
Bowman opened the scoring in the fourth quarter by hitting a lay-up at 5:47, then adding one-of-two at the line at 5:08 to give the Lady Cougars the 11-point lead, 31-20.
In their first meeting, Ohio point guard Celeste Jachimoicz scored 19 points in a 38-11 victory. This time around, the Lady Cougars held Jachimoicz scoreless until the fourth quarter, when she scored eight points of the 10-point run that brought the Lady Eagles to within a point of the lead.
Emma Schrader led the Lady Eagles in scoring with nine points.
Ellie Bratcher scored eight points for the Lady Cougars and added seven rebounds. Addi Spainhoward hit a pair of threes and finished with seven points. Breigh Jones had four points, while Izzy Edens and Emma Jennings had two each to complete the Lady Cougar scoring.
By Don Brown, Local Sports
Reach Don at donbrown@k105.com
(Headline Photo Credit: Alana Jones on Facebook)
