BARDSTOWN - The Lady Cougar basketball teams visited Bardstown over the weekend for games at the Lady Tiger Summer Shootout.

On Friday, the varsity spilt a pair of games, beating Bardstown's JV squad 56-15, then losing to the Lady Tiger varsity 36-22. The JV squad gave up a 20-16 halftime lead in a 32-27 loss to Bethlehem Academy.

VARSITY VS BARDSTOWN

Poor Lady Cougar ball-handling was a key for Bardstown as they forced 18 total Grayson County turnovers, 14 of them coming in the first half. Those turnovers led to 14 points for the Lady Tigers, 10 of them in the first half as they took a 14-11 lead. Five of those turnovers were clean steals by Bardstown's point guard which were converted into 10 points on uncontested layups.

Two of those steals came in the game's first three and a half minutes as the Lady Tigers took an early 6-0 lead and head coach Roy King called a timeout to try to settle things down. The Lady Cougars responded with five points from Shelbi Tyra on a three-pointer and a layup to pull to within a point at 6-5.

Bardstown then ran off six more points to lead by seven at 12-5, but Grayson County closed out the first half by outscoring the hosts 6-2 to trail by just three points, 14-11 at the half.

Grayson County closed to within a point of the lead twice at the start of the second half, the last time coming at the 15:09 mark when two Tyra free throws made it 16-15. Bardstown then put the game away with a 15-2 run to take a 14-point lead, 31-17 with 6:41 remaining to be played.

Tyra led the Lady Cougars in scoring with 13 points, including a pair of three-pointers. Freshman Moriah Ashley had four, freshman Alex Crowe hit one three-pointer to finish with three points, and freshman Chelsea Pharris had two points to complete the scoring. Crowe led the team on the boards with four rebounds.

JV VS BETHLEHEM

The Lady Cougars got off to a great start against Bethlehem, scoring the first eight points of the game, but the Banshees started coming back at that point. They closed to within a point of the lead twice at 14-13 and 16-15, but with 6:09 left in the first half, Grayson County outscored them 4-1 to lead by four, 20-16 heading into the second half.

Six Grayson County turnovers in the first 10 minutes of the second half allowed the Banshees to go on a 7-0 run to give them a three-point, 23-20 lead. Crowe hit a three at the 10:18 mark to tie things at 23-23, but that would be the last time the Lady Cougars had a taste of the lead. Bethlehem went on a 9-0 run to go up 32-23 with 3:31 remaining and the Lady Cougars never threatened again.

Crowe led Grayson County with 10 points, and added seven rebounds. Melody Embry added eight points and five rebounds, while Jessie McGuffin came off the bench to put in four points and pull down four rebounds.

Eighth-grader Kylee Gorby had three points, while Sarah Taylor added two to complete the scoring. Eighth-grader Halee Johnston did not score in the game, but she led the Lady Cougars in rebounds with nine.

News-Gazette Sports Reporter

dbrown@gcnewsgazette.com