Lady Rockets fought had against Caldwell

Caldwell 54, Crittenden 49

Caldwell 14 28 39 54

Crittenden 14 25 43 49

Caldwell - Sindelar 16, Meeks 12, Jackson 11, Pepper 10, Yates 5, Stone. FG. 19. 3-pointers 1 (Jackson). FT. 13-25. Fouls 8

Crittenden - Tabor 16, Hodge 15, Brown 6, Brantley 4, Graham 4, Franklin 4, Courtney, Johnson, Leidecker. FG. 13. 3-pointers 6 (Hodge 2, Tabor 2, Brown 2). FT. 5-8. Fouls 21.

BY CHRIS HARDESTY

PRESS SPORTS WRITER

In a game which featured 11 ties and leads that rarely grew larger than five for either team, the Lady Rockets lost a hard-fought 54-49 game to visiting Caldwell County last Thursday.

The Lady Tigers opened the game giving the Lady Rockets trouble with their fullcourt pressure defense, enabling them to jump out to an early 7-1 lead.

But a pair of Lady Tiger turnovers enabled Lady Rocket point guard Jessi Hodge to convert two layups in transition to whittle the lead to one.

Crittenden center Summer Courtney, who was limited to only 14:24 of action due to foul trouble, drew her second with 2:06 left in the opening stanza.

Whitney Johnson, who had three first half fouls, committed her fourth with 5:28 left in the third period. Her playing time was also severely hampered by foul trouble as she only saw 10:32 of action.

However, the Lady Rockets withstood those problems and were in the game the entire way thanks in part to their three-point shooting.

They went 6-of-15 from behind the arc enabling them to take a 43-39 lead into the fourth quarter. Two of those trifectas came from eighth grader Bailey Brown, which marked the first ones of her varsity career.

It was shots from two-point land and the free throw line which helped the visitors escape with a narrow win.

The Lady Tigers were a 20-of-36 from two-point land for 55.5 percent. The hosts shot 19-of-51 from that area for 39.2 percent.

Although Caldwell shot 13-of-25 at the charity stripe, they made more than Crittenden attempted- 5-of-8.

“We weren’t very aggressive,” Crittenden coach Shannon Hodge said, explaining her squad’s inability to get to the free throw line more frequently.

Nursing a slim lead heading into the fourth, the Lady Rockets were plagued by some crucial turnovers in the late going.

They converted 13 Lady Rocket turnovers into 18 points. Unfortunately, Crittenden was only able to score eight points off of the 15 Lady Tiger miscues.

“We didn’t handle things very well at the end,” Shannon Hodge said after the disappointing setback.

“Caldwell became a lot bigger when Summer and Whitney got in foul trouble,” she said.

Despite coming up a little short, she commended her team for giving great effort.

“It was a great game. I thought we played hard,” Hodge said.