By CHRIS HOLLIS<br>Record Sports Writer
For a team mired in a struggle such as the Lady Raiders have been the last thing they need is a game against one of the states’ top ten team but that’s just what the McCreary girls got last Monday at home against Rockcastle County.
Rated as the number 10 team in the state in yesterday’s Lexington Herald the Lady Rockets were also apparently full of confidence as they had their star player junior Sara Hammond on the bench for much of the first quarter.
McCreary Central came out of the gate with a very good effort and held a slim two point lead at three different points in the first half of the opening quarter.
The “Rock” began to roll from that point however as five straight points concluding with a three pointer by Angie Lawrence gave the Lady Rockets an 11-6 lead.
After a Lady Raider basket by Chelsea Smith Lawrence hit again from long range to start off a 10-0 run that would extend the lead to 21-8.
During the run Hammond entered the game for the first time and began to put on quite a show in front of a University of West Virgina assistant coach who had dug her way out of 20 inches of snow in Morgantown WV to make a recruiting trip to see the Lady Rockets junior forward.
Hammonds scored her first basket with 1:59 left in the first quarter, by the time the halftime horn sounded her tally stood at 23. During that time span the Lady Raiders collectively scored 18 points.
Rockcastle led 24-13 at the end of the first and extended the lead to 43-19 with just over a minute to play in the half.
Three point baskets by Holly Stephens and Candance Foster helped cut the deficit to 45-25 at the break.
Early in the third quarter with Hammond again on the bench McCreary cut the lead to 48-30 after another three by Stephens and a basket by Foster at the 4:32 mark.
After being held to just two points over the first four minutes of the third quarter Rockcastle again got the offense rolling and reeled off a 12-0 run over the next 2:50 to push the lead to 60-30.
Hammond scored her final four points of the night during the run and finished the game with 27 points and nine rebounds. Her 27 points came during a span of 16:41 of game time.
McCreary got the lead back under 30, 60-33 at the end of the quarter but went on to lose 73-42.
Kayla Morgan led a trio of Lady Raiders in double figures with 13 points. Holly Stephens and Candance Foster added 11 each. Chelsea Smith, Amber Richardson and Sierra Terry scored 2 each and Paige Loveless added 1.
Pineville 63
McCreary 54
The Lady Raiders slide continued as Pineville outscored McCreary by fifteen points in the second and third quarter to build a 50-34 lead heading into the fourth.
Central tried to rally with their most productive quarter of the contest but could pull no closer than nine points in the end.
Chelsea Smith bounced back with a team leading 19 points for the Lady Raiders. Candance Foster scored 15 while Keisha Gibson added 7, Holly Stephens 6, Kayla Morgan 4 and Roxie Watters 3.
Somerset 53
McCreary 27
The Lady Raider offense struggled mightily failing to score more that nine points in any of the four quarters.
The second and third periods again proved to be poison for McCreary as the Lady Jumpers held a 35-15 advantage in the two quarters.
The loss dropped McCreary to 6-19 on the season and just 1-11 since the beginning of 2010.
Kayla Morgan’s 8 points led Central followed by Candance Foster with 6, Chelsea Smith 5, Brittany King 3, Bryanna Hodge 2, Roxie Watters 2 and Brianna Taylor 1.
