Central High School girls' basketball hosted Lawrence County on Friday in a rematch of its first district game of the season. After a close second quarter, the Lady Raiders ran away in the second half, defeating the Lady Cats 64-42.Â
"We came out of the gates hot, everything was clicking," Coach Joe Pat Cope said. "That's the toughest part, getting all the shots. We were getting them, so I just told them keep running what we were doing.Â
CHS was electric from beyond the three-point arc Friday night, with five in the first quarter alone and seven in the third quarter. Both streaks of three-pointers helped the Lady Raiders break away from Lawrence County, with the deep shots in the third ultimately contributing to the double digit win.Â
"I thought we made the extra pass, we didn't take too many dribbles," Cope explained. "We really worked the ball, reversed it well against the zone and I thought that was the key."
Ellie Graham and Abby Morgan opened the game with back-to-back three pointers, giving CHS an early 6-0 lead. The Lady Raiders pushed ahead to 16-0 before the Lady Cats got on the board with 2:20 to go in the first quarter.Â
After taking a 21-6 lead, CHS began to slow in the second half, hitting five points. Meanwhile, Lawrence County began to climb out of its hole, battling back to make it a 26-19 game at the close of the half.Â
Halftime adjustments helped put the Lady Raiders back in control early in the third quarter. Starting with an early three-pointer from Bella Vinson, CHS hit six straight shots from downtown to slow the Lady Cats' advance. Vinson, Morgan, Graham and Jacey Vaughn all hit threes in the third.Â
Lawrence County was unable to respond as it had in the second quarter, securing another double digit victory for CHS. The win moves the Lady Raiders to 7-0 in district play.Â
"We've got to keep going," Vinson said. "We've got to keep winning our district games so we can do well in the tournament and get a high seed."Â
Vinson led the way for CHS with 23 points. She was followed by Morgan with 17. Vaughn and Graham both finished with nine points. Jenna Garretson, Marley Perry and Emma Fulks all had two points each.Â
Bella Vinson reacts to Friday’s win over Lawrence County and discusses what helped the team to hit so many three pointers throughout the game.
On Thursday, the Coffee Middle Lady Raiders and Red Raiders both picked up big wins over Harris, the Westwood Lady Rockets beat Fayetteville 11-0 and the Westwood Rockets lost to Cascade 12-7.
On Thursday night, the CCCHS Red Raiders scored four runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to lift them over Moore County 7-6 in the first game of the Crethan Hansert Classic.
After losing their first district game of the season on Monday, the CCCHS Red Raiders beat Warren County 3-0 on Tuesday night for a season sweep of the Pioneers.
