HARRODSBURG — The Lincoln County girls basketball team won its fifth straight game Saturday evening, defeating Scott High 70-63 in the Kentucky Premier Challenge at Mercer County High School.

However, the game was not as close as the final score indicates. For the second straight night, the Lady Patriots did have to play from behind before notching the win as the Lady Tigers jumped out to a 12-6 lead in the first quarter. But Lincoln responded with a 17-4 run over the rest of the period to post a 23-16 lead and never trailed again, building a double-digit lead. 

The Lady Patriots (5-0) held their largest lead of the night, 68-45, with 5:35 to play when Scott (2-4) broke on a game-ending 18-2 run to whittle Lincoln’s lead down to seven points.

“Sloppy finish to a really strong first half and third quarter,” Lincoln coach Cassandra McWhorter said. “We had some turnovers late that cost us and they still had a lot of their starters still in. We quit defending late in the game and then we weren’t scoring on the other end and they were getting outlets off of defensive rebounds or our turnovers and converting.”

Converting on most of Scott’s late points was senior guard Anna Clephane. She scored 12 of the Lady Tigers’ points in the 18-2 run and ended up as the night’s leading scorer with 33 points.

“We knew coming in that she was their best player,” McWhorter said of Clephane. “I’ve been told that she’s going to Ball State to play basketball. And you can tell she’s a very good player and everything kind of went through her tonight. I didn’t think we did too bad on her the first half, holding her to 11 points. She finishes the game with 33 and a lot of that’s in that fourth quarter when we had that let down.”

Lincoln had more than enough fire power to counter Clephane’s effort, with Kaitlynn Wilks and Emma King combining for 52 points. Wilks was 12-for-18 from the field for a team-high 27 points and King was 9-for-20 from the field, 3-for-7 from 3-point range, for 25 points. King also had eight rebounds and five assists. It was another double-double night for Wilks as she grabbed 12 rebounds in a 52-49 Lincoln win on the glass. 

Saturday night was the third straight game that Wilks has double-doubled and led the Lady Patriots’ scoring.

“Until Kait meets a true post inside that can stop her, we’ve got to keep feeding her the ball and getting the ball to her inside,” said McWhorter. “I think the girls are doing a good job of getting the ball in to her and she’s doing a good job of kicking it inside-out too when people are double-teaming her.”

Clephane scored the opening and closing buckets of Scott’s 12-6 run early in the first. Sofia Allen, who finished with 14 points, scored two field goals and added a free throw toss in the run and Summer Secrist sank two foul shots.
Wilks handled Lincoln’s scoring in the run, hitting three shots in the paint.

King kickstarted Lincoln’s 17-4 comeback run with two free throws then followed with a layup off a Scott turnover. Wilks scored six points in the run, Maddy Boyle got two free throws and Anna Lane scored on a putback before King nailed a quarter-ending 3-pointer for a 23-16 lead. 

Eleven points was Lincoln ’s largest lead in the first half and it came at the end of the second quarter, with Claudia Padgett coming off the bench to hit inside for the 41-30 advantage. King pushed in nine points for the Lady Pats in the second quarter, Trinity Shearer scored five points and Wilks had two. 

Lincoln outscored Scott 20-13 in the third period to cushion its lead to 61-43. Wilks had nine points, King had six and Boyle had five, including a quarter-ending 3-pointer.

Wilks knocked down two goals early in the fourth and King drained a 3-pointer with 5:35 to play for the largest lead of the night, 68-45, before Scott broke on its closing run.

Lincoln shot just 42 percent from the field, going 28-for-66, 4-for-18 from 3-point range. At the line, the Lady Pats were 10-for-16.

Scott was held to 31 percent from the field, on 23-for-75 shooting, 3-for-15 from 3. The Lady Tigers were 14-for-24 at the line.

Zaria Napier led Lincoln on the boards with a game-high 14 rebounds. Emma Profitt led Scott with 11.

Lincoln had 17 assists in the game, led by Boyle with six assists.

McWhorter said Saturday’s game helped her gauge her team’s mental and physical condition heading into holiday hoops action.

“It was our first back-to-back day of playing, you’ve got Christmas tournaments coming up, so I was interested to see how we responded with games back-to-back,” McWhorter said. “Early, I didn’t think we looked too bad. We backed out of our press that we normally start the game in to save legs a little bit. I thought there towards halftime we looked a little gassed and later in the game I could see some fatigue. And I think that may have been some of the letdown in the fourth quarter with our defensive presence. They’ve got to mentally overcome that physical fatigue.” 

******
Kentucky Premier Challenge
at Mercer Co.

Lincoln 23 18 20 9 – 70
Scott 16 14 13 20 – 63

LINCOLN (5-0) – Emma King 25, Kaitlynn Wilks 27, Maddy Boyle 7, Trinity Shearer 5, Anna Lane 4, Claudia Padgett 2.
SCOTT (2-4) – Payton Fields 4, Laci Reinhart 1, Summer Secrist 5, Emma Profitt 6, Sofia Allen 14, Anna Clephane 33.