The middle school Lady Cougars picked up a pair of wins Thursday night, beating the visiting Ohio County Lady Eagles twice in Cougar Gym.
In the opener, the seventh-grade girls held the Eagles to just two points in the first half and cruised home to a 34-22 win.
In the eighth-grade game, Grayson County never trailed and steadily pulled away to take a 37-28 win. The seventh-grade girls are now 14-1 for the season while the eighth-graders are 11-2.
EIGHTH-GRADE GAME
The Cougars scored the first four points of the game, but the Eagles pulled to within a point of the lead, 6-5 on 1-of-2 free throws by Brittany Clark with 2:46 left in the first quarter.
Shelbi Pendergest responded by hitting a six-foot runner, then burying a three-pointer with 2:01 left to push the lead to six points points, 11-5. Grayson County led by two, 13-11 heading into the second quarter.
A three pointer by Shannon Smith at the 3:20 mark gave the Cougars a five-point lead, 18-13, then a three-point play by Allie Horton at 2:38 made it a six-point advantage, 21-15.
Ohio’s Shelby Adams scored on a rebound basket with 2:10 remaining to cut the margin to four points, but Hannah Salsman hit a three-pointer with 40 seconds left in the half, then added a lay-up with four seconds remaining, and the Cougars took a nine-point advantage, 36-17 into the halftime locker room.
Kennedi Cave opened the second half with back-to-back baskets to give the Cougars their largest lead of the night, 13 points at 30-17.
Five unanswered Ohio County points cut the lead to eight points, 30-22, with 1:22 left in the third quarter, but Salsman scored on a lay-in with 10 seconds left, was fouled and hit the free throw to push the lead back to 11 points, 33-22 as the fourth quarter began,
The Cougars maintained that 11-point advantage until there was 1:06 left in the game. Ohio’s Adrianna Dockery hit a pair of foul shots to make the final margin nine points.
Salsman came off the bench to lead Grayson County in scoring with 10 points. Pendergest had seven points, while White finished with six. White had a fine all-around game, adding five rebounds, four assists and a team-high nine steals.
Horton and Smith both finished with five points, and Horton added three assists and a pair of steals. Cave closed out the scoring with four points and added five rebounds and a pair of steals.
SEVENTH-GRADE GAME
The Lady Cougars took and early 4-0 lead before Ohio’s Cassidy Estes scored at the 4:30 mark to make it a two-point game. Ohio County would not score again until the 5:14 mark of the third quarter.
Grayson County scored the last 10 points of the first period, then scored eight unanswered points in the second quarter to lead 22-2 at the half. Salsman opened the scoring in the third quarter by hitting 1-of-2 at the line to make it 23-2 before Estes scored on an inbounds play to end the Eagle drought and make it 23-4.
The Lady Cougars outscored the visitors 10-8 in the third quarter to lead by 22 points, 32-10 heading into the final period of play.
With mostly Cougar bench players in the game in the fourth quarter, Ohio County was able to outscore the hosts 12 -2 to make the final score a little more respectable, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the hole they had dug for themselves.
Estes led the Lady Eagles with 10 points. Salsman led all scorers with 15 points, and added three rebounds and four steals.
Grace Gorby scored seven points, and added seven boards, two assists and two steals. Three players, Mackenzie Edwards, Kaylee Masden and Brooke Simpson had four points each to complete the scoring. Edwards had a fine all-around game for Grayson County, leading the team with eight rebounds, three assists and four steals. Masden had five rebounds for the Lady Cougars.
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