A Second District battle between McCracken County and St. Mary took place on the ‘Holy Hardwood’ Tuesday night, as the Lady Mustangs exploded in the second half for their 73-42 win, while the McCracken boys ran away with the game early in a 68-32 victory.
LADY MUSTANGS 73, LADY VIKINGS 42
The final score of the girls’ contest did the opposite of reflect the play style of the first half. St. Mary came out and put the pressure on the Lady Mustangs, getting up 6-4 with four points from Audrey Sims. McCracken responded with a 7-0 run kickstarted by an Abby Casebier three and block on the other end.
McCracken ran their first quarter lead up to 15-8, but Annabelle O’Neill drilled a three in the final seconds to recoup some of that deficit. Kynnlee Brummett saw that and added a three of her own on the first possession of the second, and all the sudden St. Mary was back within one. Brummett did a great job of protecting the paint in the first half as well, picking up three blocks in the first two periods. After a lone St. Mary free throw to tie it, Alana Thomas hit the go-ahead layup for the Lady Vikings, giving them the 17-15 lead halfway through the second quarter.
In just the final four minutes before half, McCracken doubled their point total while just holding St. Mary to four. During this stretch, Reagan Hill shined, scoring four but more importantly commanding the glass with a multitude of offensive and defensive rebounds. She helped the Lady Mustangs get to a 30-21 lead at the break, where they seemed to get a hold of this game.
“We didn’t live up to our standard in the first half defensively,” McCracken County head coach Scott Sivills said. “We set a standard in our program of how we want to play defense in every possession of every game, and we didn’t do a good job of that in the first half. They’re a nice ball club. They play hard every possession. They will be a factor in the district going forward. We had to play well against them tonight.”
Coming out of the locker room, the Lady Mustangs looked like a completely different team. They came out and scored 20 points, Ava Hughes and Mason Clements hitting threes in the process. The defensive and rebounding effort was the real difference as highlighted by Coach Sivills, controlling the glass and giving the Lady Mustangs more shot opportunities. McCracken ran the score up to 50-31 at the end of the third after seven points in the quarter from Hughes, and were in prime position for the win with just eight minutes of action left.
The fourth saw a replica of the previous quarter, McCracken continuing to extend their lead, with 23 points in the quarter to St. Mary’s 11 finalizing the win with a score of 73-42.
Ava Hughes had the game high 22 points, 20 of which in the second half. Reagan Hill was the only other Lady Mustang in double figures with 11. McCracken had eleven different scorers, showing their true depth as a team. Annabelle O’Neill led St. Mary with 16, Alana Thomas behind her with 12.
“She just didn’t play well in the first half,” Coach Sivills said about Ava Hughes. “She stepped up in the second half and played to her potential as a top player in our region. Sometimes you don’t play well, and sometimes you need accountability. She stepped up like the player she she is and got us going offensively. She played very, very well in that second half.”
Now on a nine-game winning streak, the Lady Mustangs return to their home court for a pair of games, the next one up their Friday against Trigg County. They will then start next week facing the Lady Lyons.
St. Mary will take on Massac this Thursday for their third consecutive home game, then travel to CCA on Friday for some more district action.
MUSTANGS 68, VIKINGS 32
From start to finish, McCracken controlled this game’s pace and scoring, never letting St. Mary have the chance at a win. They came out on a 10-0 run sparked by an alley-oop slam by Aaron Adams to open up the game. St. Mary was limited to a singular field goal in the entire first period, a layup by Ashton Spurr.
McCracken’s on-ball pressure and transition offense stood out in the early going, as they seemingly swarmed defenders all 84 feet of the court, denying clean looks for the Vikings. The Mustangs scored a game-high 27 points in the first frame, and led by 20 after Owen Grogan got one to fall at the buzzer.
“We challenged our guys,” Head coach Dustin Roberts said about the defensive pressure following the win. “We didn’t come out particularly well against Graves last Friday. I have to give them a ton of credit, but we just weren’t focused or playing our hardest. We challenged our guys in practice over the weekend to come sit and establish that intensity and focus we’re used to seeing. I thought we saw that in the first half.”
The second continued the trend of the Mustangs overwhelming St. Mary on defense, this quarter knocking down a barrage of threes. A pair from Hawes and one from each Woodfork and Martin accounted for half of the Mustangs’ 24 points in the quarter. Woodfork’s three made the score 40-8, a 32-point lead in the first half.
St. Mary got moving later in the quarter with a pair of baskets by Griffin Mayes and one each by Ja’Cobi Nichols and Jack Griffith, but still trailed 51-17 at the break.
A running clock slowed the scoring down tremendously, as each team failed to net 20 in the half. St. Mary scored ten to McCracken’s eight in the third, but the Mustangs outscored the home team in the fourth 8-5 to solidify the 68-32 victory.
“Without sounding arrogant at all, we have a pretty good basketball team,” Coach Roberts said. “We’re focused, playing hard, executing our stuff, and we’re a pretty hard team to stop on the offensive end. On the defensive end, we’re still improving and getting better. I thought tonight was a step in the right direction.”
The loss marks the sixth straight for the Vikings, who now sit at a 4-9 record on the season. They look to snap their cold streak this Friday in their third straight district matchup at CCA. McCracken (11-3) gets back in the win column after a tight loss to a premier Daviess County team on Saturday and will try to build off that momentum Saturday against New Madrid County Central (MO) at Mustang Madness.