Story and Photos by Rusty Ellis
The Pickett County Lady Bobcats finished in third place in the District 7/A Tournament with their 62-45 win over Gordonsville on Monday.
The Pickett offense started out strong, taking a 14-5 lead early in the first quarter before Gordonsville trimmed the lead down to just 16-11 at the end of the frame.
The second is where the Lady Bobcats began to pick up some steam on the scoreboard, outscoring the Tigerettes 21-10 to take a 37-21 advantage into the halftime locker room. Senior Shayla Wood closed the opening half with a buzzer-beating runner to give the Lady Bobcats some momentum for the second half.
The third quarter saw Pickett County push the lead to 20 at one point before the Tigerettes battled back to keep the game competitive. Wood knocked down another shot at the horn to push the lead to 49-35 for the Lady Bobcats heading into the fourth quarter.
There, Pickett County was able to coast to the finish line and earn a third-place finish in the district tournament with a 62-45 win over the Gordonsville Tigerettes.
Wood paced five Lady Bobcats in double figures with 17 points, while Allie Amonett added 12 points. Emmy Lowe put together an 11-point, seven-rebound and five-assist effort, while Callie Reeder contributed a 10-point, 13-rebound double-double. Ella Kate Keisling added 10 points for head coach Brent Smith.
“I think we came out of the gates a lot better tonight,” Smith said. “We were excited to play…as the game went on, it kind of wore down, but overall, I thought the effort was really good.”
The focus now turns toward the region tournament for Smith, where his team will have to go on the road for at least their first-round matchup. As far as what he wants to improve, everything is on the table.
“We’ve got to cut out some turnovers and some unforced errors,” Smith said. “I felt like we did some things (against Red Boiling Springs) that were unforced, but you’re going to get that with young teams…we want to get in transition more. When you get in transition and get some easy stuff, it kind of eases everything else up so that’s what we’ve got to concentrate on.”
