Rockcastle County 64 Boone County 53

[WVFrank]

The Lady Rockets rode a three pronged scoring attack from Angie Lawrence, Jackie Alexander, and Sara Hammond and a incredible number of free throws to a win over Boone County in the finals of the Gateway Holiday Classic The final totals showed Rockcastle going to the free throw line 39 times compared to 9 by Boone County.

 

The game started slowly as a defensive struggle as both teams played hard-nosed defense, Boone in a straight man and Rockcastle alternating between man and zone, often changing possession to possession. The first stanza ended 10-8 in favor of the Lady Rockets. Rockcastle stretched the lead out to 23-15 at the half, running off a string of free throws during the last 4 minutes of the second quarter.

 

The Lady Rockets lead expanded to 13 points early in the third quarter before Boone's Sydney Moss began to assert herself. Moss had 10 points in the quarter, got on the boards hard, and assisted on a couple of baskets. Boone actually tied the game at 32-32 with 1:58 to go in the third before Rockcastle closed the quarter out with 5 more free throws to push the lead back to 37-32.

 

Boone again tied the game at 37-37 on a three by point guard Heather Sandlin with 5:22 to go in the game, but The Lady Rockets parade to the free throw line continued and they pushed the lead back out to 10 and then 13 over the next 2 minutes. From there Boone had to gamble and that led to some easy baskets for the Lady Rockets and they continued to drill free throws. Boone never got closer than seven over the last couple of minutes.

 

The game featured an interesting match up between two of the better players in the state as Boone's Moss, at 5-11, and Rockcastle's Hammond, at 6-2, often went head to head. Moss finished with 27 points, including 19 in the second half, to Hammonds 14 but I think Hammond won the rebounding battle. I was curious to see if the shorter Moss could shoot the ball inside over the long-armed, athletic, and quick jumping Hammond. She could and did. Hammonds did block one shot by Moss but Moss grabbed the ball back and powered it in anyway.

 

Rockcastle was led in scoring by Lawrence who had 24 and Alexander with 19 in addition to Hammonds' 14. Boone got the 27 from Moss and 14 from Sandlin who continued to show solid play.

 

The three high scorers for Rockcastle County made the All-Tournament Team and Boone placed Moss, Sandlin, and guard Annie Browning.

 

The tournament was one of the best run high school events I have attended and the Montgomery County High School folks and the friendly people of Mt. Sterling are to be commended for a fine event.

 

 

Rockcastle Co. 64 Boone Co. 53

 

Boone Co. 8 7 17 21 53

Rockcastle Co. 10 13 14 27 64

 

 

Boone Co. -- Davis 4, Moss 27, Sandlin 14, Browning 2, Shrout 5, Switzer 1.

Rockcastle Co. -- Hammond 14, Alexander 19, Abney 5, Lawrence 24, Hunter 2.

[Clyde]

39 to 9 in FTs would seem to indicate a passive offensive by Boone . Did they not penetrate? Did they shoot a lot of jumpers? Did many of the fouls come in the 2nd half when Boone was extra aggressive on D?

[bballgurl]

39 to 9 in FTs would seem to indicate a passive offensive by Boone . Did they not penetrate? Did they shoot a lot of jumpers? Did many of the fouls come in the 2nd half when Boone was extra aggressive on D?

 

No the difference was the refs.

[WVFrank]

39 to 9 in FTs would seem to indicate a passive offensive by Boone . Did they not penetrate? Did they shoot a lot of jumpers? Did many of the fouls come in the 2nd half when Boone was extra aggressive on D?

 

Actually the two teams played much the same as far as defensive aggressiveness. There was, from my obviously biased view :lol:, no discernable difference in how the teams attacked each other with perhaps a bit more penetrating on the part of Rockcastle. But not to the degree to cause a 39 to 9 imbalance in free throw attempts. Most of Boone Countys Moss' damage was done inside yet she shot only 5 free throws.

 

The margin did grow some at the end when Boone pressed but there was a huge disparity even before that. In fact Boone shot 6 of their 9 free throws in the last quarter.

 

I have no clear explanantion for the margin of free throws but I can't recall ever seeing anything like it before. And I'll add this........NO team wins a game where they are on the wrong end of such a margin.

[Clyde]

Actually the two teams played much the same as far as defensive aggressiveness. There was, from my obviously biased view :lol:, no discernable difference in how the teams attacked each other with perhaps a bit more penetrating on the part of Rockcastle. But not to the degree to cause a 39 to 9 imbalance in free throw attempts. Most of Boone Countys Moss' damage was done inside yet she shot only 5 free throws.

 

The margin did grow some at the end when Boone pressed but there was a huge disparity even before that. In fact Boone shot 6 of their 9 free throws in the last quarter.

 

I have no clear explanantion for the margin of free throws but I can't recall ever seeing anything like it before. And I'll add this........NO team wins a game where they are on the wrong end of such a margin.

 

Interesting. Can I assume Nell wasn't happy with the disparity?

[WVFrank]

Interesting. Can I assume Nell wasn't happy with the disparity?

 

I doubt that she was pleased........but her husband ended up getting the technical foul call!

 

Basketball is a difficult game to call. I did it for a number of years and also coached girls at a very strong Church League level before West Virginia had Girls HS basketball, and I'm betting I would have gotten a T had I been on the Boone bench last night.

 

I remember years ago when legendary coach Abe Lemons was asked about the idea of going from two to three officials. He responded, and this is a paraphrase because I don't remember the exact quote, "I don't like paying two guys to be bad so I certainly don't want to pay three!"

 

Thought of that last night when Moss grabbed an offensive rebound with her back to the basket, turned to put up a 6- to 8-footer, and the ball didn't even hit the rim! Reason why? She got whacked on the forearm hard enough that you heard it! Plus it was in the open, up above evrything else on the floor and easy to see. You just shake your head and wonder what three officials are looking at when that happens.

[paNDA]

Congrats to Syd Moss on a great tournament. How many did she tally during the event? And as for losing, Nell will make it a positive to move the team forward so that is really not a big deal.

[WVFrank]

Congrats to Syd Moss on a great tournament. How many did she tally during the event? And as for losing, Nell will make it a positive to move the team forward so that is really not a big deal.

 

Sydney scored 80 in three games at the Gateway Holiday Classic and has averaged 26+ over the last six games to raise her seasons average to 21.8 PPG. She is also averaging double figures in rebounding and is shooting 61% from the floor and 76% from the free throw line for the season.

 

What a difference a year makes!

 

And you're right about Nell. She moves on quickly from loses and uses them as teaching opportunities.

 

By the way, Moss is now 9 points from 1000 for her career, which began as a seventh grader at Heritage Academy. Not bad considering she only played in 32 of the potential 57 games she could have played in during her two years at Ryle.

[Give&G083]

Check out Sydney Moss' stats for the tournament at http://www.gatewayholidayclassic.com