Volunteer TIMES Sports

Lady Cougars Season Ends at Heritage

Feburary 25, 2023

The Lady Cougars basketball squad traveled to Heritage high Friday in the opening round of regional tournament play. There they ran into #2 seed, the Lady Mountaineers. Heritage only has a handful of losses on the season and three of those few were close games with a Bearden Lady Bulldogs team that is on a 54 game winning streak. So it was a tough draw to say the least.

The Lady Cougars got the first basket of the game when Carly Kitts put two on the board. The Lady Mountaineers scored the next nine points before a Bella Lester three made it 9-5 with 2:30 remaining in the opening stanza. Five more points from Kitts to close the quarter saw Heritage leading 16-10 as the second quarter began.

Saylor Hutchinson scored the first four Lady Cougar points in the quarter, with her two free throws making it 20-14 Heritage. The Lady Mountaineers managed to hit an 11-0 run, pushing their lead to 31-14 before Reagan Stanfill scored for Campbell County with 2:06 to go before the half. Lester would add two free throws and Heritage took a 31-18 lead into the break.

The Lady Cougars struggled to make shots in the third quarter, but were able to make free throws. Saylor Hutchinson made a basket and two free throws, Emma Brandenburg made two free throws, then several minutes later Carly Kitts made two free throws. Unfortunately for CCHS, Heritage squeezed in a 12-0 run between the Brandenburg and Kitts free tosses. It was 48-26 when Kitts made a deep three, late in the third. The score was 50-29 after three.

The benches cleared for the fourth, and the Lady Mountaineers got a three point bonanza from the back up players as they ended Campbell County's season with a 74-35 win.

Carly Kitts had 15, Saylor Hutchinson 10, Bella Lester five, with Emma Brandenburg and Reagan Stanfill adding two each in the loss.

Fortunately, the Lady Cougars are very young with the team centered around a lot of sophomores, with a few juniors and freshmen. So that should make for a solid 2023-24 season.