Lady Rockets advance to R2 All A semifinal

In her 33rd season at the helm of the

Lady Rockets, Shannon Hodge notched

career win No. 446 on Monday,

vaulting her into the Top 30 all-time

in Kentucky coaching victories.

DAWSON SPRINGS, Ky. – Ranked by MaxPreps as the No. 25 high school girls’ basketball team in Kentucky, Crittenden County’s sights are trained on something closer to home this week. After beating All A Classic host Dawson Springs 64-13 in Monday’s opening round, the Lady Rockets need two more victories in the tournament to capture their fourth straight regional crown.

The Rocket girls (11-3) led from the jump and raced out to a 22-2 edge, then began working in the bench. Dawson (1-6) managed just four field goals as Crittenden beat the Lady Panthers for the 19th straight time dating back to 2013.

Crittenden County has won a record 10 small-school regional titles. Standing in the way in Thursday’s semifinal will be Lyon County, which took CCHS to overtime before losing to the Rocket girls at Marion last month.

Crittenden County has won three consecutive All A Second Region championships and four of the last five. The girls have reached the state semifinals twice over the last five seasons, including last year.

Lyon County (11-3) won 80-18 at Fort Campbell in Monday’s opening round. The Lady Lyons are fresh off a holiday championship in the Kelly Holiday Classic in Paris. First-year head coach Ricky Baker has three players averaging double figures, including reigning Second Region Player of the Year Piper Cotham, who nets 20 points per game.

Lady Rocket skipper Shannon Hodge’s storied coaching career reached a remarkable milestone Monday as the win at Dawson Springs pushed her into an elite group of winners. She now ranks among the top 30 career winningest girls’ coaches of all time in Kentucky, according to the KHSAA website's all-time wins leaderboard. Her 446 victories have been amassed over 33 seasons.

Perry County’s M.C. Napier heads the career wins list with 886 over 38 years. Two other western Kentucky legends rank Nos. 2 and 3 – Henderson’s Jeff Haile (821) and Marshall County’s Howard Beth (794).

Another Rocket closing in on a key milestone is senior guard Anna Boone, who now has 1,953 career points after scoring 17 at Dawson. She is just 47 points from the 2,000 mark.

Crittenden County 22 37 60 64
Dawson Springs 2 10 11 13
CRITTENDEN — Boone 17, Evans 5, Hodge 7, Federico 10, Rushing 8, Holeman 3, Stewart 2, Berry 4, Champion 4, Grau 2, Rich 2, Kemmer. FG 24. 3-pointers 4 (Boone 3, Holeman).
DAWSON — Swatzell, Allison 3, Sawyer 2, Colson, Hines 3, Cook 1, Scott 2, Lowe 2. FG 4. 3-pointers 1. FT 4-8.