by Rusty Ellis
The Pickett County Lady Bobcats are region champions, as they defeated Clay County 60-46 in the Region 4-A Championship on Wednesday night.
A close game early, Halle Buford’s first basket gave the Lady Bulldogs a 7-4 lead, but Pickett responded with a quick 9-0 run of their own to take a 13-7 lead on an Ella Kate Keisling layup. After Pickett pushed the lead to 15-9, Clay closed the quarter with the final three points to make it a 15-12 Lady Bobcat lead heading into the second.
There, Pickett went on an early 7-3 run, capped by a Zoey Nicholas three, to take a 22-15 lead, their largest of the first half. Clay battled back however, and trimmed the lead down to 31-25 at the halftime break.
The Lady Bobcats took their first double-digit lead late in the third quarter, as Emmy Lowe’s bucket pushed the lead to 41-31, and the lead grew to 11 in the fourth when Nicholas scored to make it a 47-36 ballgame.
From there, Pickett made timely free throws and put together stop after stop at the defensive end of the floor, allowing them to win 60-46 over Clay County in the Region 4-A Championship.
Tournament MVP Emmy Lowe led all scorers with 23 points, while Nicholas added 16 points in the victory.
Halle Buford paced Clay with 22 points, and Madison Hayes scored 17 of her own.
It’s another item off the checklist for head coach Brent Smith, as he feels like his team is in the midst of a special season, even if Wednesday might not have been a perfect game.
“It wasn’t our best game, you play somebody four times, they begin to learn your characteristics,” Smith said. “We’re one of the top scoring teams in the state, and they slowed us down early…just proud of our effort, we did some really good stuff defensively.”
Emmy Lowe was dominant in the District 7-A Championship when she had 33 points and 13 assists, and she added to that performance with 23 points on Wednesday night. As Smith has seen for a few years now, when the bright lights come on, Lowe rises to the occasion.
“I’ve talked to her a lot about that, she’s flipped a switch here in these games,” Smith said. “She does a lot of things well, it’s just fantastic what she does for us on the court.”
Pickett County will now turn their attention to Copper Basin on Saturday in the substate round, while Clay County will go on the road to Van Buren. Smith says it’s one final home game for his seniors, and he’s excited for the crowd his team is going to get on Saturday.
“You play at home, you feel like you can take on anybody,” Smith said. “We were so proud of people making that trip down to East Robertson, and we knew tonight would be special…just wait until you see the people we bring on Saturday, we can’t wait.”