Teams that grind and fight in each and every contest they play in will always be in great shape in the long run.

And true to form, the West Carter Lady Comets' future looks to be extremely bright.

That future, however, is coming a lot sooner than many expected out of Aaron Rayburn's unit.

If 17 wins, a 16th Region All 'A' State Championship, and a 12-8 record inside the 16th Region lines doesn't prove that, nothing will.

However, even with that fact, the overall numbers are only half the battle, especially when one watches West Carter play over the course of a season.

Coming into the year, winning 15 games, the All 'A' Regional Tournament, and making it back to the regional tournament were the main goals, Rayburn said. Just to seeing the girls put forth the effort to accomplish more than I ever thought that we would this year says a lot about the girls and how hard they work.

In West Carter, a person will likely find that the unit is one of the scrappiest in the 16th Region, regardless of gender. The Lady Comets have held their opponents to 50 points or less in 16 of its 28 affairs recording a 16-0 mark while doing so and have displayed an extremely unselfish, balanced attack where the individuals on the roster share the ball unusually well for a team that doesn't have a single player above sophomore eligibility.

That's proven in the stats, where three players Hannah Bear, Kallie Burchett, and Allie Stone are averaging double-figures.

But it goes farther than just the overall point spread.

Take the rebounding department, for example. At 5-6, Chyann Zeigler is averaging 6.7 rebounds per contest an impressive total for any player.

However, five more teammates, including Bear, Burchett, Stone, and Ragan Adkins, are all averaging at least 2.5 rebounds per game or more. Madison Hanshaw was also averaging 4.3 rebounds per contest before the sophomore tore her ACL against Owensboro Catholic in the first round of the All 'A' State Tournament.

That evident teamwork and unselfishness, in multiple facets, has resulted is a record that is easily the second-best girls basketball team that West Carter has fielded during the decade.

We've just tried to be very direct with the girls, Rayburn said of the expectations within the program. Just being able to communicate what you want out of the girls is huge. The girls have really worked hard and come together, which is one of the biggest things that I've noticed this year. They just play as a team, and even off of the court, they're a team and like being around each other. It just all meshes well when we get onto the floor.

While the result wasn't known as of press time, the Lady Comets would tie its highest win total of the decade with a win over Greenup County last Friday.

That means that a win over Morgan County in the 62nd District Semifinals could not only give West Carter a decade-high 19 wins, but put the young team in the regional tournament where West Carter has better than a fighting chance to make the regional semifinals.

So is the future bright? Yes, probably more than even the biggest optimist could've imagined going into the year.

We're hoping to get those last two (against Greenup County and Morgan County), Rayburn said. We were close against Fleming County (on Feb. 3) before we lost by three points, and against Menifee County (on Feb. 6), we had a lead going into the fourth quarter, so we had a couple of games that slipped away from us. We're trying to take control in the end here and finish strong.

And taking control is something that this young team has done in spades throughout the 2016-17 campaign.

We can try to put this team in a situation to win, but the girls still have to go out and make the plays, Rayburn said. They've won a lot of really good games this year, so we're really, really happy with that. However, there's one more thing that we've got to do, and that's getting to the regional tournament. That would top off our year.

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Lady Comets set to make final push - Journal-Times