Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Regional Match Ups

Second Region Tournament
Opening Round
Madisonville 79, Hopkinsville 37
Webster 62, Lyon 30
Crittenden 57, Christian 54
Henderson 81, Caldwell 48

Friday's Semifinals
Webster vs. Madisonville, 6 p.m.
Crittenden vs. Henderson, 7:30 p.m.

Championship
Saturday, 7 p.m.

Girls advance in regionals


Second Region Tournament
Crittenden 57, Christian 54 OT
Christian 15 24 34 45 54
Crittenden 11 22 36 45 57
Christian - McKnight 20, Bruster 10, Barkley 9, Williams 9, Davis 3, Gold 1, Legett 2, Mosley. FG. 17. 3-pointers 2 (Davis, Bruster). FT. 14-22. Fouls 11.
Crittenden - Hodge 21, Brown 10, Brantley 9, Johnson 9, Tabor 6, Courtney 2. FG. 17. 3-pointers 5 (Hodge 2, Brown, Tabor, Johnson. FT. 8-15. Fouls 15.


Lady Rockets win first regional game in OT

Little did Lady Rocket coach Shannon Hodge know back in 1984 when she hit a game-winning layup to help beat Hopkinsville 41-40 in the Second Region Tournament, she would be the Crittenden head coach the next time the school won a game in the regional tournament.
But after a long 26-year wait, the Lady Rockets gave Hodge her first win in the Second Region Tournament as a coach Tuesday night at Dixon, with a thrilling 57-54 overtime triumph over Christian County.
The win over the Lady Colonels Tuesday was very special, as Crittenden advances to face Henderson County Friday night in the semifinal round in Webster County.
In a game that featured 16 ties and neither team leading by more than five points, Crittenden (13-13) was never intimidated against the bigger school.
Shortly after the game, the always humble Lady Rocket skipper tried to downplay the fact that she had just recorded her first win in the Second Region Tournament during her coaching career.
“It’s not about me anymore. It’s about these kids,” she said.
Primarily almost always a man-to-man defensive team, Hodge switched things up playing both a 3-2 and 2-3 zone to try and make the Lady Colonels beat them from the outside.
The strategy was very successful, as Christian proved to have trouble knocking down outside shots with any regularity.
Lady Rocket junior point guard Jessi Hodge had a fabulous outing, scoring 21 points and dishing out eight assists, helping her team advance to the semifinal round.
Interestingly, her mother was also a junior when she hit the game-winning shot over Hopkinsville in the school’s last regional win.
Eighth-grade guard Bailey Brown chipped in with 10 points and also gave the Lady Rockets steady guard play to help stun the Lady Colonels.
As has been the case in every game of the postseason, Crittenden took good care of the basketball, committing only 11 turnovers in the victory.
With the score knotted at 45-all in regulation, the Lady Rockets missed a shot to retake the lead with :12 ticks left. But they got a fortunate break when a Lady Colonel lost the ball out-of-bounds with :09 seconds left.
With the game still knotted, Hodge called a timeout with :03 ticks left and Whitney Johnson got a decent look before the buzzer. But she was not able to connect as the Lady Colonels rebounded the miss and the game headed to overtime.
Lady Rocket off guard Laken Tabor made her only trey of the game with :50 ticks remaining in overtime to give her team a 55-52 lead they would never relinquish on the way to the exciting win.
One of the few things the winners did not do well was make free throws as they were only 8-of-15 from the charity stripe. Their inability to be better in that area almost forced another overtime.
“I wish we could have made some more free throws,” the Crittenden coach said after the game.
Leading 57-54 with :04 seconds left in the extra frame, the Lady Rockets misfired on a pair of free tosses and the Lady Colonels drove all the way down the floor and missed a three-pointer right before the buzzer.
Hodge listed the game as the biggest win during her tenure and hopes the crisp performance carries over into the semifinal round against Henderson, who has captured five straight Second Region Tournament titles.
“Its a big step for our program. I’m just tickled to death for our players,” she said.

Lady Rockets lose district finals at the buzzer

Fifth District Tournament
Lyon 48, Crittendn 46
Lyon 11 21 33 48
Crittenden 8 20 36 46
Lyon - Doom 18, Rhodes 11, Riggs 10, White 4, McGill 2, West 3, Snow, Greene. FG. 14. 3-pointers 2 (West, Riggs). FT. 14-20. Fouls 12.
Crittenden - Hodge 15, Tabor 14, Brantley 6, Courtney 5, Brown 2, Johnson 2, Graham 2. FG. 15. 3-pointers 3 (Tabor 3). FT. 7-9. Fouls 20.

Lady Rockets lose district finals at the buzzer

In a hotly contested Fifth District Girls’ Championship game last Friday at Rocket Arena that featured eight ties and 10 lead changes, the Lady Rockets came up on the disappointing end of a 48-46 decision to Lyon County.
The frustrating setback continued the long drought of futility of not capturing a Fifth District Tournament title since 1984, when Coach Shannon Hodge was a junior on the team.
In fact, they are 0-8 in Fifth District Championship games since then, with an average margin of defeat of 18.6 points.
After such an impressive showing against district rival Livingston Central in the opening round triumph, unfortunately there was not a bit of carry over as the Lady Rockets came out sluggish in the opening quarter.
Conversely, the Lady Lyons played well, employing a sticky man-to-man defense that they would stick with the entire way. Behind that fine defensive effort, the visitors took an 11-8 lead after the first quarter.
Unfortunately, an all too familiar theme occurred for Crittenden during that quarter as the duo of forwards Summer Courtney and Whitney Johnson made two early fouls.
Due to those foul woes, Courtney played only 13:41 of the contest while Johnson was limited to 16:08 of action.
With that pair out of the game much of the time, Lyon burned the Lady Rockets all night by scoring at will in the low post.
Another problem for the hosts was in the rebounding department as Lyon outrebounded them 29-21.
The Lady Rockets missed six layups, which could have turned the game in the other direction.
While Lady Lyon senior guard Brittany Doom only combined for 10 points in the two regular-season setbacks to the Lady Rockets, she was hard to stop in the title clash.
She poured in 18 points and pulled down five rebounds to help her team capture the district crown.
Despite not playing very well the entire night, the Lady Rockets entered the fourth quarter with a slim 36-33 lead.
Johnson was whistled for her fifth foul with 5:25 left to play, but Crittenden forward Laken Tabor broke a 38-all tie a few seconds later on a 3-pointer to put her team back in front.
But the Lady Rockets would suffer another casualty at the 4:58 mark as Courtney was called for her fifth foul, forcing them to play even more shorthanded.
The visitors would tie the score for the sixth time on the night less than 1:00 later at 41-all.
Crittenden sending their opponent to the free throw line 20 times did not help their attempt to break the 26-year title drough.
While Crittenden was 7-of-9 from the charity stripe, Lyon got there many more times making 14-of-20 for 70 percent.
With the score knotted at 46-all and 1:18 left to play, Crittenden had possession of the ball after a timeout.
After taking the clock down to below :30 ticks, Lady Rocket senior forward Tiffany Graham was called for walking, only Crittenden’s seventh turnover of the game, but nonetheless a very costly one.
The Lady Lyons brought the ball across halfcourt and called a timeout with 7.6 ticks left. As the Lady Lyons inbounded the ball, Doom drove and made a nice pass to Rachel Rhodes, who made a layup with :01 second left for the winning bucket.
After the defeat, coach Hodge said she could see a performance like this coming, alluding to a sluggish practice the previous day.
“We don’t have anybody to blame but ourselves,” she said.
She credited Lyon with being the aggressor and said they deserved to win the ballgame.
“You’ve gotta hand it to Lyon County,” she said.
She also lamented her team battling foul trouble as a huge problem in defeat.
“The reason for that was that we were not getting in the proper defensive position,” she said.
After being so upbeat from the blowout win over Livingston Central, the Lady Rocket coach was frustrated that her squad reverted back to some of their inconsistent play.
“We’ve had a problem putting four quarters together,” she said.
Lady Lyon coach Jeff Doom was proud of the way his team responded in the title tilt after having lost by a combined 27 points to Crittenden during the regular season.
“I thought both teams were relentless in not wanting to lose,” he said.
He thought getting Courtney and Johnson in early foul trouble proved pivotal in the contest.
“They did a nice job of getting the ball inside,” Doom said, referring to all the high-percentage shots his team got.