In a 48 hour period, Christian County watched as the Lady Colonels and Colonels fell in their respective region semifinals.
First were the Lady Colonels Saturday taking on Henderson County, a day later than they were scheduled to due to weather.
Set to face the region favorite, they were aware of the tall task in front of them. Henderson County bolstered a strong interior presence and an ability to work inside out and make the open and contested three.
Well for a half the Lady Colonels held on strong, trailing by single digits at the half they had done well to contain the post play of Jarie Thomas and closed out fairly well on shooters.
Unfortunately, and several Northern Lady Colonel mentioned it after the game, they came out red hot in the second half.
As the Christian County continued to do well to limit Thomas, it also severely limited Nevaeh Day, who had just five points total, Thomas had eight.
With that being said, the continued interior concentration and attempt to close out on shooters failed as Graci Risley and Shalyn Sprinkles would make ten of their teams thirteen threes. Totaling a combined 33 points.
For reference, the Lady Colonels of the south had 33 points, total.
Anaysia Bagwell did manage to get fourteen and DEBony Anderson was a force defensively on whoever she was guarding. This is an extremely young team that will get better and will stick around.
On the flip side the Colonels played a pretty darn good game in their region semifinal. Head Coach Toby Miles and his team just seemed to run into a buzz saw of a Lyon County team.
The Lyons, since losing to UHA in the All “A” tournament, have been motivated and playing at a different level.
They are 14-0, winning by an average of over twenty points a game, including a twenty point payback beatdown of UHA at Lyon County. Travis Perry is averaging 34.3, Jack Reddick 22.1, they have had a thirty plus point scorer in all but two games and no they weren’t all Perry.
Brady Shoulders is averaging a double-double with eleven rebounds, and the three of them combine for better than sixty points a night, 84 of 109 against Hopkins County Central in the quarterfinal.
Good news in the semi, the Colonels held Reddick and Shoulders to a combined twenty four, and the rest of the team, besides Perry, to eleven. Unfortunately, Perry had 41.
41 points. That puts him just fifty-four away from the all-time, career, state scoring record.
The Colonels did all they could defensively. Perry was just a transcendent talent as we know him to be.
A 76-53 final score, the Lyons average better than 84 points a game, so another win overall for the defense of Christian County.
It was the offense at times that failed them.
Turning the ball over better than fifteen times in the game, only Breland Morrison and Derrell Bateman scored in double figures and they only combined for twenty-nine.
It was a night where the Colonels could have played their best and still would have been in a dogfight, but with their struggles it ended up being another twenty plus point Lyon County win.
The Lady Colonels finish the year at 16-14, the Colonels 19-13. Both teams return talent like Bagwell, Day, Anderson, and Bateman; among others.
Unfortunately though, the two teams they face, will do the exact same thing. Rematches next season, same place, same round, only time will tell.