For the third year in a row, the McCracken County Lady Mustangs are the First Region Champions. They accomplished the feat Saturday night, defeating the Graves County Lady Eagles 51-35 in a late-game rally to clinch the Mercy Health First Region title at the CFSB Center.
While the majority of the season has featured senior leaders in Claire Johnson and Mikee Buchanan, Saturday night's win was successful much to the help of key role players.
Fellow senior Jayden Skaggs was one such role player who showed up big when it mattered most, knocking down 3-pointer after 3-pointer on her way to a game high 16 points.
"I am beyond proud of my teammates," Johnson said. "They came in when they needed to, they hit shots when we needed them to. Jayden Skaggs did great and I'm so proud of her."In what was a closely contested ballgame through the first two quarter of play, it was Skaggs would would keep the Lady Mustangs on top. With knotted up scores back and forth through much of the second quarter, Skaggs would be the difference maker, nailing three 3-pointers in the second frame.
She regularly matched deep balls made from Graves County's Ella Kemp and Hannah Glisson who were instrumental in keeping the Lady Eagles within striking distance early.
"We knew what defense they (Graves) were going to come out with," Skaggs said. "We knew they were going to take away our best scorers, so we all just had to step up and play our role."
With a first quarter score of 13-11 in favor of the Lady Mustangs and a halftime score of 26-23 also for McCracken, it appeared a rematch of exactly a month ago would ensue. That game ended 47-44 in favor of Graves County, a result the Lady Mustangs didn't want to see repeated.
"That kind of just gave us motivation," Johnson said. "We knew that they had beat us, we didn't want that to happen again, so we just came out here and gave it our all."
And give it their all they did, quickly pushing their lead in the second half with a pressure defense emphasis.
What was a 26-23 lead quickly turned into a double-digit lead thanks to back-to-back 3-pointers from another role player in eighth grader Ava Hughes. This led to the Lady Mustangs outscoring the Lady Eagles 16-6 in the third quarter capped off by a corner three from Skaggs.
"I thought Jayden Skaggs and Ava Hughes made some ginormous shots, we had to have them," McCracken County head coach Scott Sivills said. "We knew they were going to come out and play some jump defense on us all night and we just had to make shot to get the W."
While shots fell for the Lady Mustangs, the case wouldn't be the same for the Lady Eagles. McCracken County was able to keep leading scorers Morgan Alexander and Hannah Glisson to below their season average with two and nine points respectively. This led to Khloe Scott and Kailee Winfrey stepping up, contributing eight points each.
Of course, while role players played an important role in the Lady Mustangs win, Johnson also had herself just as important of a night, knocking down 11 points on her way to being named the Joey Fosko Most Valuable Player.
Reagan Hill followed with nine points, Hughes added eight and Buchanan put up seven to round out the five scorers for the Lady Mustangs.
Behind the nine points from Glisson and the eight points apiece from Scott and Winfrey came three points from Kinsey Burgess and Ella Kemp and two points each from Ginger Martin and Morgan Alexander.
Alexander would also be awarded with the Rex Alexander Award after the game which is voted on by First Region Basketball Coaches. She is the fourth consecutive Lady Eagle to receive the award.
With the victory, the Lady Mustangs advance to the State Tournament where they will take on the victors of the Sixteenth Region, the Russell Red Devils (28-6). That matchup is scheduled for Wednesday, March 13 at 12:30 CST at Rupp Arena in Lexington.
MCRACKEN COUNTY 13 13 16 9 - 51
GRAVES COUNTY 11 12 6 6 - 35
MCHS: J. Skaggs 16, C. Johnson 11, R. Hill 9, A. Hughes 8, M. Buchanan 7
GCHS: H. Glisson 9, K. Scott 8, K. Winfrey 8, K. Burgess 3, E. Kemp 3, M. Alexander 2, G. Martin 2.