LLOYD When West Carter visited the Greenup County Lady Musketeers on Friday night, Lady Comets coach Aaron Rayburn was hoping to leave the Greenhouse with some lightning in a bottle heading into 62nd District Tournament play next week.

Instead, Rayburn found a pocket full of kryptonite to open the second half against the Lady Musketeers, forcing his squad to once again rise to the challenge after Greenup Countys reserves tied the contest at 33-33 with just over 3 minutes to play in the third.

The Lady Comets responded after Ragan Adkins bookended 3s sparked an 11-0 run to put the visitors in front for good. West Carter cruised to a 60-43 win.

The third quarter has been our kryptonite all year, Rayburn said. Its just been a hard quarter for us to play all year.

Unlike Greenup County coach Tyson Phillips, who elected to sit his starters in the second half, Rayburn rolled the dice and left his on the deck, looking to tighten things up before opening with Morgan County in next weeks district tournament.

Weve got five really solid girls and two girls coming off the bench but our five has to come around every single quarter, Rayburn said. So keeping them in there for me was simply just trying to clean some things up and finish on a good high note there at the end.

Phillips took a different approach that was already decided well before the contest.

It was our game plan back on Tuesday and we stuck with it and I wasnt going to change it no matter what the score was at halftime, Phillips said of the decision. It was our plan and hopefully it works out next Tuesday.

West Carter raced out to an early 14-5 lead behind three Allie Stone triples, but a 10-0 Greenup County run sparked by six Maggie Miller points, put the Lady Musketeers in front, 15-14.

Stone finished with a game-high 19 to lead the Lady Comets. Bear chipped in 16.

Stone continued to light up the scoreboard in the second, followed by Hannah Bear who sliced her way through the Greenup defense for several layups in the frame, as West Carter took a 27-21 lead to the break.

Greenup County made one final push to open the second half, after Sierra Brown connected on back-to-back treys to cut West Carters lead to 31-30. Brown finished 3-for-4 from beyond the arc to lead the Lady Musketeers with nine points.

Thats her job is to shoot and its the only job I give her, Phillips said. Sierra is a great shooter and did a great job knocking down three 3s.

Eighth-grader Emma Boggs added two more triples to Greenup Countys total, finishing with six points.

Were all young and theres talent here, Phillips said. There were stretches in the second half where they played really well and played just like they were a starter.

GREENUP CO. FG FT REB TP

Miller 3-4 2-4 1 8

Bryant 3-5 2-3 6 8

Hill 1-2 0-0 3 3

Valandingham 0-4 2-4 2 2

Haywood 0-3 0-0 1 0

Zaph 0-3 0-0 0 0

Hannah 2-6 1-3 6 5

Brown 3-4 0-0 1 9

Boggs 2-3 0-0 1 6

Robinson 1-2 0-1 4 2

Gammon 0-1 0-0 0 0

Hall 0-0 0-0 1 0

Ratcliff 0-1 0 0 0

Hunt 0-2 0-2 1 0

TOTAL 15-42 7-17 34 43

FGPct.: 35.7. FTPct.: 41.2. 3-pointers: 6-15 (Brown 3-4, Boggs 2-2, Hill 1-1, Valandingham 0-1, Ratcliff 0-1, Hunt 0-1, Haywood 0-2, Zaph 0-3). PF: 15. Fouled out:None. Turnovers: 16.

W. CARTER FG FT REB TP

Stone 7-12 0-1 5 19

Bear 5-10 6-8 3 16

Burchett 4-8 0-0 5 10

Zeigler 1-4 0-0 2 2

Adkins 3-9 1-1 0 9

Gilliam 1-2 0-0 4 2

Jordan 0-1 0-0 0 0

Nichols 0-1 2-2 0 2

Hanshaw 0-0 0-0 0 0

Haynes 0-1 0-0 0 0

Steagall 0-1 0 1 0

TOTAL 21-49 9-12 25 60

FGPct.: 42.9. FTPct.: 75. 3-pointers: 9-24 (Stone 5-10, Bear 0-2, Burchett 2-6, Adkins 2-4, Zeigler 0-1, Haynes 0-1). PF: 18. Fouled out: None: Turnovers: 6.

GREENUP CO. 15 6 15 7 43

W. CARTER 14 13 17 16 60

Officials: Dave Stafford, Kenny Huddleston and Jeff Seiver.

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Lady Comets control, cruise past Greenup - The Independent