Shelbyville, KY – Turnovers proved to be the undoing of the South Oldham boys and girls basketball teams on Friday night as South ventured into a lion’s den at Shelby County High School. The Lady Dragons and Dragons already faced an uphill struggle, seeking to upset the 6^th-ranked Lady Rockets and 10^th-ranked Rockets on their home floor, and although both squads performed admirably in defeat, both were ultimately done in by their inability to consistently hang on to the basketball.

Lady Rockets 71, Lady Dragons 47 – At halftime, this game had the potential to be a stunner. South Oldham, coming off an 8-17 season, trailed the Lady Rockets just 35-31. Led by 13 points – including two three pointers – from sophomore sensation Ashley Trosper, the Lady Dragons were staying close. In fact, it was South who jumped out to the early 8-4 lead, taking the fight directly to the surprised Lady Rockets. After Shelby tied the game at 8, the two teams basically swapped scores before Shelby began to slowly push out to a 25-16 bulge. With Shelby’s defense concentrating on smothering the towering Ashley Staude – who led the Lady Dragons to victory over Jeffersontown earlier in the week – South turned to their guards for scoring. The Lady Dragons could have easily folded their tents at this point, but they stayed aggressive, created some turnovers of their own, drew fouls, and hit their foul shots to pull to within two points, before settling for the four point half-time deficit.

But the second half was to be all Shelby County. The Rockets came out of the locker room inspired, scoring the first five points of the second half to equal their largest lead of the night at 40-31. Meanwhile, the Lady Dragons developed a bad case of turnoveritis, and they threw away the ball on three of their first four possessions.

By the time the teams went to the fourth period, Shelby had extended the lead to 14 at 55-41. Led by junior Toni Slaughter, who scored 30 points in the Lady Rockets’ opening win over Paul Dunbar, Shelby could seemingly do no wrong. Slaughter appeared to be everywhere on the court, swishing 18-footers, posting up down low, grabbing rebounds, and snaring steals.

With South already dealing with mounting fouls to key players – Staude ultimately fouled out after a frustrating 0 point outing, and Emily Cobb and Stephanie Vaughn finished the game with four fouls – the Lady Dragons may have been dealt the final blow with 6:27 to play. Trailing 58-41, Ashley Trosper went down with a minor ankle injury. Although she would later return to action, she failed to score in the second half, missing all four of her second-half attempts, and the Lady Rockets took advantage of her absence on defense. An 11-1 Shelby County run boosted the margin from 58-41 to 69-42, and the Lady Rockets’ coasted to the win from there.

Shelby County improves to 2-0; South Oldham falls to 1-1.

South Oldham – Trosper 13, Cravens 8, Dearmond 8, Vaughn 7, Hay 4, Cobb 3, Schumm 2, Robbins 2

Shelby County – Slaughter 24, Watts 15, Kerchner 12, Marshall 10, D. Schlotterbeck 4, S. Schlotterbeck 2, Crittendon 2, Anglin 1, Railey 1

Shelby County 95, South Oldham 68 – Despite the 27 point margin, this game was closer than it looks. But the Dragons never could quite catch the Rockets, who outscored them in each period, and their final rally – though impressive – was too little, too late.

After the Rockets jumped to an early 13-7 lead, the Dragons rallied behind the outside bombs of Brad Cofer and Travis Foley. An 8-1 run gave South a 15-14 lead late in the first period.

Cofer’s performance was outstanding, considering he wasn’t 100% after twisting an ankle on Tuesday against Jeffersontown. In that game, Cofer played just the first four minutes and failed to score. Against the 10^th-ranked Rockets, South figured to need a strong performance from their star sophomore, who was the top returning scorer from last year’s 31^st District runner-up squad.

The Rockets outscored South Oldham 9-2 to close out the first half, as senior guard Juanie Jackson repeatedly tortured the South defense with his quickness and marksmanship. Jackson scored 10 points in the first period on 4 of 4 shooting, including two threes.

Trailing by just six entering the second frame, South lost their shooting eye. In the first period, the Dragons had overcome – to some degree, at least – a number of turnovers by hitting 6 of 10 shots and 2 of 2 free throws. South also was 3 of 6 from beyond the arc in the first period, a dramatic improvement over Tuesday’s performance against J-Town, when they hit just 1 of 4 threes for the game.

The Dragons made an early rally in the second, cutting the lead down to three at 29-26. But a 6 of 15 shooting performance in the second period, coupled with continued difficulties in getting the ball up the floor against the tenacious Shelby press, led to a 22-8 Rocket run to close out the half. Zane Williams was particularly devastating as the senior forward repeatedly used his quickness to flash down the baseline to the hoop for easy scores. The two teams hit the locker rooms with Shelby leading, 51-34.

Trailing by 17, South needed to cut into the margin in the third. Instead, the Dragons went scoreless for nearly the first four minutes of the third period. While Shelby wasn’t exactly setting the world on fire with its offense, the Rockets still scored the first four points of the period to stretch the lead to 21 at 55-34 with 5:46 remaining in the third. By the time Steve Combest scored, only 4:20 remained in the period.

After an unimpressive third period, which saw South hit just 3 of 14 shots and Shelby hit just 7 of 17, the Rockets had pushed out to a 20 point lead at 65-45.

Curiously enough, that was the exact margin in last year’s game in Crestwood – almost the exact same score – as Shelby had led, 63-43 in that game after three quarters. In last year’s game, both coaches went to their bench early in the fourth, and South’s reserves blasted Shelby’s subs, pulling the Dragons to within 11 with just two minutes to go, before Shelby’s starters came in to preserve the 74-62 victory.

Shelby coach Champ Ligon wasn’t about to risk another similar comeback, so the Shelby starters – all seniors – spent most of the time on the floor in the final period. It didn’t matter. The Dragons – who developed a "never say die" attitude last year in coach Steve Simpson’s first season – weren’t done yet.

Shelby scored the first two points of the period to take a 67-45 lead. But led by Cofer, who scored nine of his team-high 19 points in the period, South began to rally. The Dragon press, largely ineffectual in the first three periods, began getting turnovers in the Shelby backcourt, leading to easy buckets. And when Cofer drained his second straight three with about five minutes to play, South had pulled to within 11 at 70-59.

That’s when the Dragons ran out of gas.

South had two more chances to cut into the lead, but Cofer missed back-to-back threes that could have pulled South to within five. Then, with four minutes to play, came the play of the game.

Still trailing 70-59, South began to bring the ball up court. But Shelby senior forwardd Robert Daniels stole the ball at mid-court, drove in for a lay-up, was fouled, and hit the free throw for a 73-59 lead. The play ignited the Rockets, who outscored South, 22-9, the rest of the way to account for the final margin.

Shelby improves to 2-0; South falls to 0-2.

Player Notes: Brad Cofer hit 6 of 13 shots, including 4 of 9 threes, to account for his 19 points. He was 3 of 4 at the line and showed few ill effects of the ankle injury, although fatigue in the ankle late in the game may have been the reason why he missed his last three 3-point attempts after hitting 4 of his first 6. Steve Combest stayed out of the foul trouble which plagued him against J-Town and displayed a more aggressive approach on offense, scoring 15 points on 7 of 13 shooting. But he struggled at the line, hitting just 1 of 8 shots. Travis Foley couldn’t find his shot from the floor. After hitting his first shot – a three – Foley missed 8 of his last 9. But the senior point guard was perfect at the line, where he hit 8 of 8. Kenny Richard, the Dragons’ top scorer (15 points) against J-Town, was hampered by fouls and fouled out with 3:26 to go after scoring just 5 points.

South Oldham – Cofer 19, Combest 15, Foley 13, Richard 5, Jaracz 5, McCoy 5, Watson 4, Osmer 1, Donohue 1

Shelby County – Williams 23, Daniels 14, Silverhorn 13, Jones 6, Shemo 4, Masters 4, Younger 3, Natalie 3, Murray 2, Kingsolving 2