Monday, January 17, 2005
 
Lady Bobcats Win One Easily; Then Win One the Hard Way
 
by Brian Boyle
Huntington News Network Sportswriter
 
Hinton (HNN) – On Friday Jan. 14, 2005 it was Shady Spring. The next night, Jan. 15, the opponent was Princeton. Two up two down for the Lady Bobcats, but the Princeton game was a triple overtime cat fight between the Summers County Lady Bobcats and the Princeton Tigerettes.

Lady Bobcats Beat Princeton 76 to 65 In Triple Overtime

After the game ended Saturday night the comments spread across the Summers County gym that this was one of the best basketball games in years. In a rematch of last month's Pit Row Classic Title Game, the Princeton Tigerettes came to town to knock off the defending Champion Lady Bobcats. In the Pit Row Championship game in December. Sarah Blevins connected on a game winner to give the Lady Bobcats a 1-point 41 to 40 victory. It was a thriller but the sequel was even better Saturday night.

In four regulation quarters and two overtimes the score hardly ever got wider apart then a four point spread. Princeton led the way during most of regulation play. The Bobcats got out to an early lead but Princeton made a run and finished at the close of the first quarter leading 18 to 14. The battle continued about even but the Lady Bobcats managed to close the gap by a single point to finish down 3, at 29 to 26 when the half ended.

By the end of the third quarter the Lady Bobcats clawed the Princeton lead down to 1 at 43 to 42. One point was separating these two teams again. But they weren't through. As regulation ended it was tied at 53 to 53. It was a classic seesaw battle down to the wire.

The overtime got better and it continued to seesaw. They finished tied again at 59 to 59. In the next overtime they finished tied yet again at 62 to 62. 40 minutes of basketball had gone by and still there was no winner. The battle was hard fought. Several players fouled out along the way for Princeton. This was Princeton's Achilles Heel on this night. Princeton's senior all state Lindsey Repass and one forward Kelly Ratliff both fouled out. In the final overtime 2 more Princeton players exited because of fouls. Repass scored 21. In all the Lady Bobcats went to the foul stripe 54 times. They connected on 35 of them in the game.

In the final overtime after the Lady Bobcats took the lead by six Princeton had to foul to stop the clock. The Bobcats connected on 9 of 14 fouls in the final overtime to win it 76 to 65. It was a real cat-fight between the Bobcats and Tigers on this cold Saturday night in January. They will meet again in Princeton on Feb. 10. Mark it on your calendar, you don't want to miss this one.

Junior Sierra Brown played her best game of ball this season. She scored a season high 27 points and she grabbed 9 rebounds. She played a couple of the overtimes with 4 fouls before fouling out herself with 2.5 seconds remaining in the game. She got a standing ovation from the Summers County Fans when she left the floor.

But it was a team effort all the way. Guard Jenni Wynes scored 19 and made a parcel of good drives that helped cause Princeton foul trouble. When it looked like Princeton might win the second overtime one could feel the momentum shift when Jessica Williams, who returned to the lineup after being out with a knee injury, hit a key 3 pointer on the way to scoring 11. Junior post player Katana Mullen grabbed the game high 14 rebounds in a ferocious battle with Princeton Center Megan Criss in the paint. Lady Bobcat Jessica Mills was 8 for 8 from the foul stripe. The Bobcat bench did their job in a battle of attrition. It was one classic game of basketball. In the final two minutes the point spread grew to 11 with a 75 to 65 score. It took 42 game minutes to break the log jam and 44 minutes to decide a winner.

Summers County 85 Shady Spring 31

The Lady Bobcats continued their dominance over Shady Spring by winning a lopsided victory at home on Friday night, Jan. 14, 2005. Joanna Mills led the way with a season-high 15-point game. She added 14 rebounds and 5 blocks garnering a Double-Double for the Lady Bobcats. Joanna continues to work on her game after last year's auto accident.

A pair of freshmen, Jolysa Brown added 14 points, and Rebecca Newsome scored 13. Sierra Brown continued her hot scoring with 12 points and nine rebounds. Senior Jessica Mills connected for 9 points. Jenni Wynes, Sarah Blevins and Katana Mullen hit for 6 points each. Mullen grabbed 9 rebounds as well. Freshman Megan Wheeler hit 4 to round out the scoring on the night.

In the first quarter, the Summers County Lady Bobcats jumped on Shady and finished leading by 25 to 5. In the second quarter Shady couldn't put a point on the board. The half ended with Summers County building the lead to 48 to 5. At the end of three it was 63 to 14. The final was 85 to 31. Plenty of girls saw action for Summers County who had 4 girls sidelined with injuries.

Summers County is now 10 wins and one loss on the season. They are ranked # 4 in this weeks coaches poll. They face last year's State Champs Winfield at Winfield at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 18.