Coverage of Pickett County athletics presented in part by Keisling Insurance
Story and photos by Kailee Means:
Both Pickett County basketball teams earned wins Saturday night in a Thanksgiving classic.
The Pickett County Lady Bobcats played a tight game with Monterey, but came out on top 71-52. The Lady Bobcats outscored the The Lady Wildcats 34-22 in the second half to propel themselves to the victory.
“Overall, playing back to back, I thought everything was great,” said Pickett County head coach Brent Smith. “We play hard and we’re led by our senior Shayla Wood. The thing about it is, we’re still young overall, still freshmen and sophomores, they are used to playing that way and they like to play that way to where it is fast and fun.”
For Pickett County, freshman Emmy Lowe had 16 points, 11 assists and 11 rebounds. Senior Shayla Wood had 16 points. Sophomore Ella Kate Keisling had 14 points. Freshman Callie Reeder and Sophomore Allie Amonett both had 10 points each.
For Monterey, junior Lindsey Wright had 15 points. Senior Adaline Clouse had 12 points. Freshman Lydia Phillips had nine points. Freshman Kady Hopkins had 7 points. Senior Jordyn Walker and Junior Abbie Sasser had four points each.
The Monterey Lady Wildcats travel to Van Buren County at 6 p.m. Tuesday night. The Pickett County Lady Bobcats will host border rival Livingston Academy at 6 p.m. Tuesday night.
“We are fixing to get into a tough stretch,” said Smith. “I knew Monterey was much improved so it was a better challenge. We’ve had some runaways these last couple of games, but today was one of our tougher games, and now we’re coming into the stretch in our schedule so they will all be tough.”
The Pickett County Bobcats earned a 79-53 win over the Smith County Owls.
The Bobcats outscored the Owls 25-7 in the fourth quarter to secure the win.
“I thought we played well but it was a game of spurts,” said Pickett County head coach Joseph Amonett. “This weekend is the first time our entire team has actually played together. Zach (Amonett) just came back yesterday and he is just working through a couple of things. Getting our timing right, you saw us in the fourth quarter, went from a nine point game to a 25 point game in about 3 minutes. I think when we decide to play the right way and share the ball the right way I think we can do good.”
For Pickett County, senior Hunter Wattenbarger led in scoring with 25 points. Senior Zach Amonett had 20 points. Sophomore Heath Wattenbarger had 9 points. Seniors Will Amonett and Caleb Lowhorn both had seven points. Freshman Jacob Amonett had six points, and Sophomore Kaidan Thomas had 5 points.
This was Senior Zach Amonett’s second night playing after coming back from an ACL injury.
“We got a couple sets of brothers, a threesome and a twosome, then Caleb and then I have John Parker Reagan’s younger brother Eli,” said Amonett. “It is fun coaching. Brothers have a little bit more of a sibling rivalry game. They get after each other a little bit more so we have some interesting practices, but they’ve all figured out a way to do it.”
The Bobcats are set to take on border rival Livingston Academy at 6 p.m. Tuesday night.
“We’ve got Livingston Academy and Cannon County next week and they are both two very talented teams,” said Amonett. “I wanted to make sure this Thanksgiving Classic was challenging and we got two wins versus two very good teams. First Baptist Academy came in here 3-1, they had a one-point overtime loss and we were able to beat them last night, and Smith County came in here 5-0 undefeated and really had not had a close game. They had beaten everybody by 20 points and for us to come out and play like we did it felt good, and it feels pretty good too because we did not play our best basketball. We could have played better.”
