STEARNS —   Winter weather continues to hamper the Lady Raiders attempts to get their scheduled games in.  Despite playing twice last week the McCreary girls team had two more games postponed which pushes them back to an already crowded final two weeks of the regular season if they  can even be rescheduled.

  The Lady Raiders had been scheduled to travel to Harlan County last Friday and then to host Pineville on Saturday afternoon.  The threat of snow or ice however kept either of them from being played leaving the coaching staffs scrambling to find dates  that both teams could make up the games.

  The game with Pineville will be played this Thursday but a date to get the Harlan County game in hasn’t been reached yet.

  The make up games have crunched the Lady Raiders schedule so tight that they will  play eight games in twelve days to end the season and will not have consecutive days without a game until next Wednesday and Thursday.  They played only seven games in January but will now play eight games within the twelve day span beginning yesterday until February 15.

  On Tuesday McCreary traveled to Monticello and came away with a hard fought 67-58 win over a Lady Trojan team that took them to the final horn at home just eighteen days prior.  The task of beating the Lady Trojans again became tougher with starting senior Kisha Gibson shelved for the game due to sickness.

  One thing McCreary could not afford was running into foul trouble when they were already shorthanded but that’s exactly what they got and it started to mount within the first minute of the contest with an offensive foul of second leading scorer Candance Foster.  Less than a minute later with the score 3-2 Foster was whistled again on a questionable call as Monticello scored to take a 4-3 lead.

  Lady Raider head coach Toby Curry opted to leave the senior in the game with the two fouls and McCreary rallied to take a 14-8 lead on a three pointer by Brittany King with 1:50 left in the opening quarter.

  On Monticello’s next trip down though Foster was called for her third personal with 1:26 left in the period and would spend the second quarter on the bench.

  McCreary extended thier 14-10 lead to 17-10 early in the second when Megan Stevens rebounded a missed free throw and got it two Kaylee Cotton for an easy two points underneath.

  Monticello answered with four straight points to trim the lead back to three.  Cotton would again score for McCreary though, this time with a deep three pointer from the right wing but the Lady Trojans answered with another four straight points cutting the lead to two.

  A Cierra Terry three pointer pushed the Lady Raider lead back up to 23-18 but with just over four minutes remaining in the half Monticello freshman Bethany Peyton scored inside to begin a 10-0 run that put the Lady Trojans up 28-23.  Peyton’s basket plus the and 1 free throw gave Monticello a five point lead with 2:02 left in the half.

  Cotton would answer with a three point play of her own fourteen seconds later and then with just under a minute on the clock she would sink two more charity tosses to pull the Lady Raiders even at 28-28.

  Monticello however would score twice more, once by Peyton and one from senior Autumn Bell to take a four point advantage 32-28 into the locker room.

  After watching from the Lady Raider bench for the second quarter Foster was ready to get back into the action in the second half and she wasted no time doing so.  On Monticello’s first possession she come away with a steal and drove three quarter length of the floor for a lay up while getting fouled.  The free throw to complete the three point play pulled McCreary to within a point and was just the beginning for Foster.  The senior would hit from three point range in the left corner the next trip down  to give Central the lead and then after teammate Brittany King’s free throw line jumper on the next trip she converted a Monticello turnover into another three pointer.

  Monticello would get a basket from Taylor Troxell to break McCreary’s 11-0 run but Foster found herself alone at the three point line again on the following possession and drained her third three pointer of the half.  Just over a minute later she would score again following a Lady Trojan turnover.  The basket gave McCreary a 44-34 lead  and ended Foster’s scoring outburst in which she scored 14 of the Lady Raiders 16 points in a span of 4:11.

  Junior guard Destinee Duncan completed a three point play to end the streak and would go on to pull the Lady Trojans back to within six by the end of the quarter with four unanswered points in the final minute of the period.

  McCreary would take a 47-41 lead into the final period but a three pointer by sophomore Tristan McLean early in the fourth cut the lead to 47-44.

  Cotton would answer with a basket for Central but Peyton scored on a put back on the other end to keep the difference three points.  Megan Stevens scored for McCreary but a Lady Raider turnover resulted in another basket by Peyton with 5:54 to go pulling Monticello back to within three points at 51-48.

  McCreary would began to put a little room between them and the Lady Trojans as Monticello would go scoreless for more than three minutes following Peyton’s basket.  Lady Raider senior Brittany King started off an 8-0 run with a huge three pointer with 5:03 remaining.  Stevens would hit two free throws over a minute later to make it 56-48 and she would score again with 3:04 showing to make it 58-48.

  A free throw by Cierra Terry capped off the 8-0 Lady Raider run but Duncan hit two free thows followed by a another three pointer from mclean and Monticello was suddenly back to within six, 59-53 with just over two minutes left on the clock.

  Duncan would foul out with 1:41 remaining and the Lady Raiders would began to milk the clock and put the game away from the free throw line.  That strategy seemed to be a solid one with McCreary being 8-10 from the free throw line in the opening three quarters of the game.  In the final 1:41 however they would hit just six of thier twelve attempts.  Monticello however wasn’t able to take advantage and went scoreless until a basket with just :45 left on the clock.  By that time McCreary had pushed the lead back up to 64-53.  Cotton had a big put back off of a missed free throw and converted a three point play just prior to the Lady Trojan basket.

  Monticello got to within 65-58 on an Autumn Bell three pointer with :27 to play but they could not score again after two missed Lady Raider free throws with :24 to play.  Foster capped off the game hitting two shots from the line to make the final score 67-58.

  Candance Foster’s 21 points paced the Lady Raiders who also got 18 from Kaylee Cotton, 10 from Brittany King and 10 from Megan Stevens who started for Kisha Gibson.

  The win kept McCreary in position to take the top seed in the upcoming district tournament.  That honor would be gained by defeating Southwestern last night on the road, that game however ended too late to make this edition of The Record.  A loss last night would give Southwestern the number one spot via a 2-0 record over McCreary in the first tiebreaker should the Lady Warriors  lose to Monticello and end in a 4-2 tie with McCreary.

  On Thursday night McCreary used a 24-5 third quarter advantage to increase a 26-18 halftime lead into a 50-23 advantage going to the fourth quarter.  The Lady Raiders would go on to post thier fourth win in a row 59-38.

  Candance Foster again led the way scoring 25 points before sitting out the final quarter.  Kaylee Cotton ended with 22 getting all of her points in the final three periods.