Story - The Meade County Messenger


Vol. 115, No. 4	January 23, 2008

Lady Waves continue their streak with two district wins

Photo by Sam Morrison
Carly Evans looks inside against Frederick Fraize

By Sam Morrison
Messenger Staff

This past week, the Meade County Lady Waves looked to establish themselves as the team to beat once again this year in taking on two district foes in Hancock County and Cloverport’s Frederick Fraize. Hancock County was trying to gain revenge from their latest loss to the Lady Waves, 61-37, in Brandenburg and make their run for the district title. Cloverport, who has struggled this season, was looking for their first win.

On Thursday night, the Lady Waves traveled to Hancock County to battle the Lady Hornets for that district supremacy in a tough road district game. The first half was dominated by the Lady Wave attack. Effective full-court pressure defense and good three-point shooting allowed Meade County to suppress the Lady Hornets and post a 14-point lead at the half, 35-21.

The second half proved to be a little tougher than the first. Hancock County streaked out of the gates and cut the Lady Wave lead to eight early in the third quarter. After calling a timeout, Lady Wave head coach Josh Hurt tried to gain his players’ attention.

“They are just not going to lay over for you,” said Hurt. “If you think you’re just going to be able to play a good first half and come out with an easy victory, you’re wrong!”

This ignited the Lady Waves coming out of the timeout, but Hancock County had much more to say about the outcome of the game. Momentum seemed to switch back and forth throughout the half. If Hancock County made a few baskets and cut the Lady Wave lead to single digits, the tandem of Lady Waves Mindy Oliver and Mallory Wathen would make timely three-point baskets to hold off the Lady Hornets. Oliver and Wathen combined to shoot 6 of 9 from three-point range for the game, Oliver was 3 of 5 and Wathen was 3 of 4. By the time the final buzzer sounded, Meade County claimed a 56-40 victory to make them 3-0 in the district and 9-9 for the season. Hancock County dropped to 2-3 in the district and 4-9 for the season.

For much of the night, Meade County’s sophomore class proved to be a tough match-up for the Lady Hornets. Mallory Wathen, a sophomore guard, finished with a team-high 16 points, along with 3 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 steal. Another sophomore guard, Caroline Wilson, finished with 8 points, a team-high 10 rebounds, 2 assists and 3 steals. Bliss Powers and Carly Evans contributed 8 points and 3 points, respectively. Powers also had 5 rebounds, and Evans had 2 rebounds. This means the sophomore class scored 35 of the 56 points, 20 of the 29 rebounds, 4 of the 9 assists and 4 of the 10 steals for the game. Hurt didn’t find this to be that much of a surprise.

“They did an outstanding job,” Hurt said. “Mallory was outstanding and Bliss, in the first half, was so strong with the basketball inside. Carly gave us some good minutes. Caroline Wilson was outstanding as well as she was only a couple points shy of a double-double (double figure points and rebounds). This class as a whole is extremely strong. They are eight deep, and they are prepared and ready to play at the varsity level. We tell them that any night we might need them to step up and be ready. They were tonight for us.”

Friday night, Hall of Fame night, the Lady Waves took on the winless Lady Aces of Cloverport’s Frederick Fraize High School in another district match-up. From the beginning, the Lady Waves overwhelmed the visitors from Cloverport. The first half ended with the score 44-6 in favor of the Lady Waves and the final score saw the Lady Waves victorious 76-15. This improved the Lady Waves to 10-9 overall with a perfect 4-0 district record. The Lady Waves were led by Kayla Fackler’s 14 points and Mindy Oliver’s 10 points, while balanced scoring and strong bench play allowed the Lady Waves to come out with the big victory.

Next up for the Lady Waves is district rival Breckinridge County Jan. 24 at 6/7:30 p.m. at Meade County High School.

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