A great way to celebrate Senior Night for the Christian County Lady Colonels Friday night, although it got a bit too interesting late in the game for Lady Colonel fans. On the evening they honored five young ladies for their contributions to the Christian County girls basketball program, the Lady Colonels put an end to a brief two game losing skid by taking care of business against the Hopkins Central Lady Storm 56-46.
The Lady Colonels were coming off back to back losses in tough matchups against Owensboro Catholic and Murray.
While it took the Lady Colonels a few minutes to adapt to a 3-2 zone from the Lady Storm on the offensive end, Christian County’s defensive pressure and size inside got things rolling fairly quickly. The Lady Colonels jumped out to a 9-2 lead less than three minutes into the opening quarter. With the speed and quickness of Aaliyah Hampton and the size and strength down low from Trinity McGee, the lead quickly grew for Christian County. The Lady Colonels finished the quarter outscoring Hopkins Central 13-4 to push the lead on out to 22-6 after one.
The Lady Storm could never mount much of a threat in the second quarter. Christian County opened the second on a 7-2 spurt to move the lead out to 29-8. The 21 point margin is where the two teams would be when the half came to an end, with the Lady Colonels up 37-16. Aaliyah Hampton outscored Hopkins Central on her own with 18 points in the first half of play.
With the big lead, Coach KiKi Radford was able to rotate players in and out of the game and get some looks at some different combinations of players on the floor in the 3rd quarter, much as she had in the second quarter of the game. By the end of the 3rd, the Lady Colonels had extended the lead to 25 points at 50-25.
Hopkins Central found their stride during the 4th quarter against the Christian County reserves and made a run to close the gap to ten points at 54-44 with 1:01 left in the game. The run prompted Coach KiKi Radford to bring her starters back into the game to protect the lead. Hopkins Central would get as close as 8 points, but Christian County managed to stave off the furious run by the Lady Storm and hold on for the ten point win.
Aaliyah Hampton had a big night for the Lady Colonels with 25 points. Bianna Snorton added 10 points. Trinity McGee had 6 points for Christian County.
Hopkins Central was led by KeKe Ikeard with 19 points. Gabby Baxter added 12 for the Lady Storm.
With the win, Christian County improves to 15-9 on the season. Hopkins Central falls to 10-14.
