Taylorsville, KY – The South Oldham Lady Dragons and Dragons headed south to tangle with the Lady Bears and Bears of Spencer County High School in an inter-District battle. With the home team celebrating Homecoming and Senior Night on the same evening, a packed house was treated to a dynamite doubleheader.

Spencer Co. Lady Bears 63, South Oldham Lady Dragons 52 – In the 22 years of Spencer County High School, there had never been a Lady Bear team this successful. With just one senior on the team, Spencer County came into the game with a 17-8 record and more to prove. Despite South’s record of only 6-15, the Lady Bears saw this game as an opportunity to prove something.

With South Oldham scoring four of their first six points at the line, the Lady Dragons jumped out to an early 6-4 lead, only to see the Lady Bears rip off ten unanswered points to grab a 14-6 lead with just 44 seconds left in the first period. The first moments were truly indicative of the contest to come, as the game became physical early. In fact, twelve of the first twenty points came from the line, and both teams were in the bonus situation before the first period was in the books.

In fact, the two teams would combine to set two new free throw records. In fact, they smashed the old marks. The old record for most free throw attempts by two teams in one game, 64, was set by June Buchanan and Cordia last year. South Oldham and Spencer County would unofficially combine for 76 free throw attempts on the evening. The 53 made free throws by South Oldham and Spencer eclipsed the old record of 42, set by Oldham County and Bullitt Central in 1997.

South – or at least, Alexis Fleming – finally came alive in the final 25 seconds of the first period, as she scored back-to-back field goals, the second with just three seconds left, to pull South to within four at 14-10 after one quarter.

When Ashley Trosper hit two free throws and Emily Cobb hit a three pointer to start the second quarter for South, the Lady Dragons seemed to be getting in gear. Cobb’s three wrapped up a 9-0 run in just under two minutes, and the Lady Dragons had taken a 15-14 lead. The two teams would struggle back and forth, though, for the remainder of the half, with neither team gaining more than a four-point advantage. Spencer County would finally head to the locker room with a 24-23 advantage after Shanna Noel hit one of two free throws with just three seconds left in the half.

Despite the small deficit, all was not well in the South Oldham camp. The Lady Dragons hit just 6 of 33 shots (unofficially) in the first half for a woeful 18.2%. Even the free throws just weren’t falling in the first half, as South struggled to hit 8 of 15 charity tosses. Worse, leading scorer and rebounder Melissa Hayes spent much of the first half on the bench in foul trouble, and had just one point on a free throw. Still, the shooting had to come around, and the Lady Dragons trailed by just one.

South began the third quarter aggressively, going on an 11-3 run to begin the period and pulling out to their biggest lead of the night at 34-27. Although the shooting only improved slightly (4 of 15 for the period), the Lady Dragons repeatedly found their way to the line, where they hit 8 of 10 shots. But after Ashley Staude gave the Lady Dragons the seven-point lead on a basket with 5:06 to go in the period, junior Shanna Noel took over for Spencer.

The 5’7" junior guard came into the contest as the Lady Bears’ leading scorer at 15.2 ppg. She also averaged 3.0 assists per game to lead the team in that category as well. Over the next eight minutes, Noel scored 16 of the Lady Bears’ 22 points, leading her team from a seven-point deficit to a three point lead at 49-46 with 5:09 to go. She capped it off with a 25-foot three-pointer, one of four such bombs she dropped on the Lady Dragons en route to a game-high 30 points.

Emily Cobb was trying to do the same for South, scoring 8 of her team’s 12 points during the period. She gave the Lady Dragons their last lead at 46-44 on her third three-pointer of the evening, on her way to a team-high 19 points. But after Noel scored two free throws to tie it, and the aforementioned three to push Spencer County on top, South could not catch up again.

Two free throws by Cobb pulled South to within one, but the Lady Bears ran off 7 unanswered points, led by Kala Marshall’s four free throws and a putback of a missed free throw by Courtney Hall. The latter came with just under four minutes left to give Spencer an eight point lead at 56-48. At the same time, South coach Kim Messer sent Melissa Hayes back into the lineup with four fouls.

Hayes immediately took the ball to the basket, forcing a foul and hitting two free throws. After Lindsey Dearmond and Alexis Fleming forced Spencer County into a ten-second violation on the ensuing possession, Fleming followed with a free throw to pull South to within five at 56-51 with 3:12 left.

Spencer then turned the ball over on two consecutive trips down court, but South failed to convert after either. Finally, with less than two minutes left, Marshall connected for Spencer to push the margin back to seven at 58-51.

Fleming pulled South to within two scores at 58-52 after hitting one of two charity tosses at 0:56, but Spencer County scored the final five points of the game on a Noel three and two free throws to take their biggest lead at the end, 63-52.

South finished the game – unofficially – 12 of 71 from the floor for 16.9%, and 23 of 35 from the line for 65.7%.

South Oldham (6-16) – Cobb 19, Fleming 10, Hayes 9, Trosper, 6, Staude 5, Dearmond 3, Vaughn 0, Bray 0, Cravens 0

Spencer County (18-8) – Noel 30, Marshall 11, C. Hall 7, Simpson 4, B. Hall 4, Geary 4, Peyton 3,

South Oldham Dragons 82, Spencer County Bears 75 – The Dragons and Bears checked the defenses at the door and challenged each other to an old-fashioned shoot-out. No shot clock was needed in this contest. Three passes constituted a long possession. But by the time it was over, the capacity Homecoming crowd had been treated to an exciting, down-to-the-wire game.

The Bears set the tone early, racing down court on each possession and hammering it inside to their 6’3" sophomore center, Darren Edwards, who repeatedly drove the lane, either scoring from point-blank range or going to the line, where he hit 9 of 14 freebies.

South countered with their usual barrage of three-pointers, and after Cofer hit his second three, South had a 9-6 lead. After an Edwards hit a free throw – he scored nine first-quarter points – Steven Hay scored and hit a free throw to give the Dragons their largest first-half lead at 12-7.

But Spencer responded quickly, scoring seven unanswered points to take the lead for the first time at 14-12 on two Edwards free throws with 3:41 left in the first. When Edwards closed the scoring in the first quarter the way he opened it – with a free throw – the Bears had a 22-18 lead over the visitors from Crestwood.

Steven Combest scored to open the second quarter for South Oldham, and then the Dragon defense turned back-to-back Bear turnovers into a two-pointer by Matt Kennedy and a three-pointer by Brandon Losik. The 7-0 run pushed South on top by three, and set the tone for a back-and-forth second period featuring five lead changes and in which neither team would lead by more than four. When T. J. Beisner followed a missed shot just before the halftime buzzer, he gave South a 45-43 lead at the intermission. That shot would break the last tie of the contest.

Good shooting sustained South in the first half, as the team hit 54.5% from the floor, including 43.8% beyond the arc. Matt Kennedy quietly led the charge with ten first-half points.

South came out of the locker room strong to start the second half, and the Dragon press started to generate some turnovers. The result was a 15-4 run to over the first five and a half minutes of the period, stretching the South lead to 60-47, the biggest margin of the game. John Shelburne, who led the Bears with 22 points, finally broke a near-three minute dry spell with two free throws. That started a rally by the Bears, who outscored the Dragons, 12-5, to close out the period down by only six. Along the way, the Bears hit 6 of 7 free throws.

Both teams were noticeably fatigued as the fourth period began, but exhaustion appeared to be hurting Spencer County more. With about six minutes left and South up, 71-62, coach Mike Appleman gambled and removed all five of his starters. The fresh legs of the subs helped them to keep South from building on the lead, and when Appleman re-inserted his starters with 2:40 to go, the lead was still nine.

The Bears immediately outscored South Oldham, 6-2, to pull to within 76-71 with just 48 seconds left. The Bears then fouled Brad Cofer with 45 seconds to play.

Cofer missed the shot, but Kennedy rebounded and scored to all but clinch the win. From there on, it was simply a matter of hitting the free throws to win.

South improved to 11-13, Spencer falls to 6-18.

South Oldham – Kennedy 18, Cofer 14, Shultz 14, Hay 13, Combest 8, Beisner 7, Foley 4, Losik 3, Richard 1, Jaracz 0, Watson 0

Spencer County – Shelburne 22, Edwards 17, Mattingly 12, Burns 10, Fields, McCauley 2, Bruck 2

The next SOUTH OLDHAM broadcast will be next Tuesday, when the South Oldham Lady Dragons entertain the Eastern Lady Eagles. The Pregame show begins at 7 pm with the tipoff at 7:30 mpm
 
 

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