The North Oldham Lady Mustangs, under first year coach Gerard Mattingly, face off against Oldham County at home in Goshen, KY on Friday, 1/22/21.

North lost their first game of the season over the weekend, falling to Lexington Catholic, 80-60.    They play Highlands tonight in Goshen and will have two games under their belt before the matchup.

Oldham County has not played yet, but will also have two games played before Friday, facing Assumption tonight and North Bullitt on Thursday; both games are on the road as Oldham opens the season on a four-game road trip.

North is led by junior Riley Neal, who is 15 points away from 1,000 career points and should cross that threshold tonight (Tuesday) against Highlands.     She had 29 points, 9 rebounds against LexCath on 11 of 16 shooting.    Sophomore Katelyn Vize had quite a coming out party in her first game as a varsity starter; Vize had a double-double against LexCath, scoring 13 points and leading the team on the glass with 11 boards.

Oldham County graduated the guts of last year's 19-13 squad that finished as 29th district runner-ups.   Kayley Batts (6.0 ppg last season) is the leading returning scorer.    Sydney Cheatham, primarily a defensive specialist, is the next top returning scorer at just 2.7 ppg; Cheatham is the top returning rebounder at 3.1 boards a game.

More than just a county rivalry game, this is a District 29 seeding game, and - in a three-team district (Trimble County moved out of the 29th this year) - every win is critical.   The team that claims the #1 seed earns a first round "bye" in the district tourney, thereby ensuring a berth in the girls' 8th Region tournament.

For North, this is a big deal.   North Oldham opened in the 2003-4 season, but the Lady Mustang program has never made it to the region tournament, despite some years when they've had a competitive team.   Mustang Nation thinks that this is the year the curse is lifted.   

Free live video coverage of the game begins at 5:30 pm on Friday, with the throw-in at 6 pm ET, on www.pegasussportsky.com

Thoughts?

CM

North's 5'11" junior Riley Neal scored her 1,000th career point Tuesday vs. Highlands.    She has 28 points against LexCath and 22 points against Highlands to start the season and will be the #1 challenge that Oldham will have to tame.

The Lady Colonels graduated their size last year; Oldham coach Chris Nethery is going to need a real team approach to slowing down Neal.

Oldham County evened their record last night by defeating North Bullitt, 51-45.

Very inexperienced Oldham County squad, only Sidney Cheatham, the Lady Colonels' point guard, returns to the starting lineup from last season.

The big challenge for OC will be how the Lady Colonels handle Neal, who can score inside-outside.   Chloe Brown will likely get the task of protecting the rim, but she's probably not mobile enough to play Neal out on the floor (not many teams have a big who's mobile enough to do so!).   Defensively, look for Oldham to throw a number of players at Neal....

Offensively, the Lady Colonels' will work a high-low approach with Brown down low and Reagan Cheatham up high.

Likewise, North's challenge remains on the defensive end of the floor, after giving up 80 points to Lexington Catholic and 71 to Highlands.

Free live video coverage begins at 5:30 pm ET on www.pegasussportsky.com

5:04 left in first

North 4 - 2

end of one

North Oldham 18 Oldham County 10

Oldham's PG Sidney Cheatham on bench with two fouls

6:41 to go in half

North 18-14  

NOHS timeout

HALF

North Oldham 32-23

end of three

North Oldham 47-34

Lady Mustangs have led by as much as 15

Riley Neal with 19 points and 9 rebounds for North

correction 

North 49-34

5:32 left in game

getting out of hand

North with repeated runouts

North Oldham 59

Oldham County 38

FINAL   

North Oldham 65

Oldham County 45

Riley Neal of North with 21 points / 13 rebounds