The team won the GRVC title last year as seventh-graders, the first time Grayson County's girls had won a championship. Thursday's win made it back-to-back titles for the Lady Cougars, another first.
Grayson County had reached the title game by defeating host Muhlenberg North, the tournament's top seed, 36-31 in last Tuesday's semi-final round.
Against Ohio County, a team that presses from start to finish, the Lady Cougars did it with defense.
It's been said a team that presses doesn't like to be pressed and that was certainly the case for the Lady Eagles. They turned the ball over 29 times on the night, including nine times in the first quarter and 11 times in the third, when Grayson County outscored them 27-7 to put the game away.
“Our focus all week has been this,” said head coach Josh Belcher. “We knew they would have the jitters on offense, and miss some easy shots, but despite that there is one thing you can always do and that is play defense.”
The Lady Cougars had to make this tournament run without one of their top scorers and rebounders, center Halee Johnston. The play of Katie Newton and Erin Marshall standing in for Johnston was outstanding all week.
“Our post players did a tremendous job filling in for Halee,” Belcher said.
The Lady Cougars completed the season with a 21-5 record, giving them 40 wins for the last two seasons.
“This is a focused group of girls who love playing basketball,” Belcher said. “This has been all their own doing.”
MUHLENBERG NORTH
Though this game was tight from start to finish, the Lady Cougars trailed only at the start of the game. Kylee Gorby's 10-footer at the 4:21 mark put her team in front for the first time at 4-3 and the Lady Cougars would never trail again.
The score was tied on two occasions, the last time coming at 14-14 with 1:46 left in the second period, but another Gorby 10-footer put Grayson County back in front for good.
The Lady Cougars led 20-16 at the half and still led by four, 26-22 heading into the fourth quarter. They had the opportunity to ice things at the foul line in the fourth quarter, but could hit just 4-of-10 shots there. They finished 8-of-18 for the game, just 44 percent.
“If there was one thing I wished we could have done better it would have been to hit a few more free-throws,” Belcher said after the game. But overall he was ecstatic with the way his girls came out to play.
“We made no stupid mistakes tonight. We were aggressive with out feet on defense, not with our hands,” he said. “Except at the end, and I think they were just anxious to have it over with.”
With Johnston sidelined, Belcher had a request for all his players.
“The main thing I told them was that we needed everyone to get one or two more points and one or two more rebounds than usual.”
Belcher singled out Newton and Gorby for their contibutions in this game.
“Katie did a heck of a job in the post for us,” he said. Newton finished with four points, two rebounds, two assists and two steals.
“Kylee just took us on her back,” Belcher said. “They applied a lot of different defenses, with traps and screens, but Kylee did a great job of adjusting to everything they did and really put pressure on their defense.”
Gorby finished with a game-high 22 points and added four rebounds, two assists and led the team with six steals.
Jordan Decker scored six points and led the team on the boards with seven rebounds. She also had an assist and three steals.
Claire and Lauren Crawford completed the scoring with two points each, with Lauren adding six rebounds to her totals.
OHIO COUNTY
This was the third meeting between these two teams. They split the first two, with Ohio County winning big, 43-18 at Cougar Gym, and the Lady Cougars returning the favor 37-25 in the Lady Eagle's gym.
In that first game, Gorby went out early in the game and no one else was capable of handling the press. In the second game, Gorby played throughout and broke their press all night.
She did the same thing Thursday night despite having at least two players glued to her side all night long.
The defense was outstanding. Grayson County held the Lady Eagles to just three first-quarter points, then held them to just four in the third quarter to put the game out of reach.
The Lady Cougars forced empty trips on Ohio County's first four possessions and took an early 6-0 lead.
After Chelsie Cessna scored on a lay-up and Julie Hirtzel hit one of two at the line to make it 6-3, the Lady Cougars closed out the first period with a 7-0 run to grab a 13-3 lead heading into the second period. They led 22-13 at the half.
As they did at the beginning of the game, the Lady Cougars opened the second half with six straight points to jump the lead to 15 points, 28-13 at the 4:30 mark. They went on to outscore the Lady Eagles 14-4 in the period and led by 19 points, 26-17 heading into the fourth quarter.
Ohio County put together a 6-0 run at the start to cut the margin to 13 points, 36-23 with 3:27 left to play, but they would get no closer.
Gorby finished the game with 20 points, 14 in the first half. She had 20 or better in all three tournament games.
Claire Crawford had an outstanding game, joining Gorby in double figures with 14 points, with 11 of them coming in the second half. She led the team with seven rebounds and added an assist.
Newton finished with five points, while Decker had two and Kailea Gill had one to complete the scoring. Decker had three rebounds, three assists and led the team with six steals.
Lauren Crawford did not score in the game, but led the team with six steals and added three rebounds and three assists.
News-Gazette Sports Reporter
dbrown@gcnewsgazette.com
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