12th Region Girls Tournament: Lady Patriots rein in Lady Colts; roll 73-42

Published 12:59 pm Thursday, March 2, 2017

SOMERSET — The Lincoln County girls basketball team kept its postseason playoff hopes alive Tuesday night in the 12th Region Tournament quarterfinal round – and they did it against an unfamiliar foe.
West Jessamine is one of only a handful of regional teams that Lincoln has not faced this season, however, unfamiliarity with the Lady Colts’ team was no hindrance for the Lady Patriots in the first meeting as they cruised to a 73-42 victory at Pulaski County High School.
“We had our concerns coming into the game tonight because they were the only team in the region tournament that we hadn’t played, hadn’t seen one game all year,” Lincoln coach Cassandra McWhorter said. “I watched a lot of film on them and knew their personnel but it’s hard to really tell the kids and prepare them.”
Apparently, McWhorter did something right in preparing her team. The Lady Patriots opened the game on a 24-6 run and were never seriously threatened after that. The Lady Colts did break on an 11-2 run in the second quarter to cut the deficit in half, but there was no stopping the Lady Patriots. 
Lincoln led 28-18 at halftime, cushioned its lead to 15 points going into the fourth quarter, then took off on a 25-9 scoring tear in the final period to earn a spot in Friday’s semifinal round. Lincoln will play Wayne County at 7:45 p.m.
“The final score was not indicative of the entire game,” West Jessamine coach Jason Seamands said. “We were pretty competitive for a while, we just kind of ran out of gas. We got enough stops in the first three quarters I thought. Our defense was good enough but our offense wasn’t. We knew we had a small margin of error to stay in this game and win tonight. We got some good looks and earlier in the season those are shots we would be making, but we didn’t have the offense tonight.”
The Lady Colts (21-10) shot just 33 percent from the field overall, going 15-for-46, 4-for-18 from 3-point range. They were 8-for-15 from the foul line. 
West Jessamine couldn’t corral the Lincoln offense, with the Lady Patriots going 28-for-61 from the field for 46 percent and 10 of the 11 players getting in the scorebook. 
Leading the Lincoln offense were Kaitlynn Wilks with a game-high 24 points and 13 rebounds and Haley Southerland, who came off the bench for 16 points and four boards.
Emma King, the Lady Patriots’ leading scorer was held to just seven points. And that was Seamands’ goal for the game.
“We got to see them twice live and we knew they were a really good bunch,” he said. “Emma King is a terrific player and we knew if we played our normal defense she was going to go wild, so we knew we couldn’t leave her. We tried to contain her and that allowed some of their other girls to have better games.”
King may not have been a big scorer but she managed to get in on Lincoln’s explosive 24-6 start by tallying a bucket. Wilks pushed in eight points in the run, including the game’s opening bucket. Logan Godbey finished with four points and Jenna King and Trinity Shearer each got two points. Southerland picked up six points in the run, including the bucket midway through the second quarter that gave the Lady Pats’ the 18-point advantage.
The Lady Colts put together an 11-2 run late in the first half to cut the deficit in half, with McKenzie Ivey hitting inside to ignite the run. Anna Lee, who finished with 11 points, sank four free throws, Bethany Hamilton, who led West with 17 points, nailed a 3-pointer then Faith Osborne, who also finished with 11 points, scored inside to make it 26-17.
Lincoln took a 28-18  lead into the half, then saw its lead dip to single digits only once in the third quarter. 
“I thought the first quarter we did a good job, but then as the game went along we had some breakdowns and that was not maybe knowing their personnel as well as somebody we’d played before,” McWhorter said. “But then we bounced back the second half and did the things we needed to do to win.”
Hamilton bombed in her second 3 of the night for the 32-23 margin in the third quarter, but the Lady Pats finished out the period on a 16-10 run and never looked back.
“I thought the third quarter we started seeing some things that they were doing and that made a difference,” McWhorter said. “They were face-guarding Kaitlynn Wilks and Emma (King), playing a little triangle-and-2. We just isolated them out to corners and told the other three you’ve got 3-on-3 and you can drive to the rim. We were able to get a layup either way by attacking. I thought we did a good job by adjusting there.”
“Emma’s been scoring in double figures and only attempted three shots tonight, because they paid her a lot of attention, but we had people step up and take the load off Emma,” she said. “We have more than one player capable of putting the ball in the hole. Haley had 16 points on 6-for-12 shooting and Kaitlynn was 10-for-13 for 24 points.”
Lincoln outrebounded West 48-19. Emma King had seven boards and Jenna King had five. Ivey led West with five.
Maddy Boyle had six points and three assists and Logan Godbey had four steals.
The Lady Patriots had 13 turnovers and the Lady Colts, 16.
“They are a terrific team and well-coached,” Seamands said of Lincoln. “I’m proud of our girls. We didn’t get the win, but I’m proud of them.”

12th Region Tournament
at Pulaski Co.

First Round
1 2 3 4 F
W. Jess. 4 14 15 9 – 42
Lincoln 16 12 20 25- 73

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WEST JESSAMINE (21-10) – Bethany Hamilton 17, Anna Lee 11, Faith Osborne 11, McKenzie Ivey 2, Alleyse Steinkuhl 1.
LINCOLN (19-8) – Emma King 7, Kaitlynn Wilks 24, Maddy Boyle 6, Jenna King 4, Logan Godbey 6, Haley Southerland 16, Zaria Napier 4, Trinity Shearer 2, Anna Lane 2, Hailee Barnes 2.