The question headed into the girl 8th District tournament appears, on paper, to be pretty simple. That question being, is there anything that can prevent a Christian County-Hopkinsville championship game on Thursday night?
The Hopkinsville Lady Tigers and the UHA Lady Blazers will open the tournament Monday night at 6pm at Christian County High School. The 7:30pm game that evening will have Christian County taking on Fort Campbell.
The UHA Lady Blazers are 13-13 coming into the tournament and they were the champions of the 2nd Region All A Classic. However, coming down the stretch the Lady Blazers have struggled, losing seven of their last eight. They finished 2-4 in 8th District play, losing both of their matchups with the Hopkinsville Lady Tigers, 68-37 and 68-44.
UHA is led by Lily Hendricks, who was averaging 14 points per game, and Meghan Adams, who was averaging just over 10 points and 7 rebounds per game.
Hopkinsville enters the postseason at 16-14, and is a team that has seen its ups and downs this season. At times they have been as dangerous as any team around, at others they could be beaten by about any team around. They drilled Henderson County 74-59 and handled a pretty good Breckinridge County team 64-57. On the flip side, they were handled by Webster County 76-36 and got dropped by Calloway County 66-38.
Headed into their season finale last week, Jayla Rose and Breon Oldham were both averaging over 15 points per game for the Lady Tigers. Rose was also second on the team in rebounding at just over seven per game. Yogi McKnight was at just over 13 points per game.
Many thought that the loss of Trinitee Jackson and Laderia Gold for Christian County might open the 8th District door for another team to ascend to the top of the district this season. All the Lady Colonels did was go 6-0 in district play. The only one of those games to be within double figures was a 60-57 win over Hopkinsville back on January 11. The question for the Lady Colonels will be how do they respond to a brutal schedule to end the season, one that saw them finish 1-5 over their last six games.
Aaliyah Hampton had a huge regular season for the Lady Colonels. Hampton averaged 18.1 points and 5.3 rebounds per game for Christian County. Bianna Snorton averaged 8.8 points per game and Trinity McGee averaged 7.6 points and 6 rebounds per game for the Lady Colonels.
For the Fort Campbell Lady Falcons, it has been a challenge at time to be able to have enough players to start games. At one point, there were rumors that the Lady Falcons might even have to forfeit their district tournament game against Christian County due to not having enough players. But, after a change in time for their game, Fort Campbell will be a part of the tournament. You gotta give these young ladies a bunch of credit for coming out night after night. While their record, at 0-25 might not indicate it, this very young team has improved over the course of the season, they just need more time and more numbers.
Christian County won the 8th District in 2018. Hopkinsville took the title in 2017, 2016. UHA won the championship in 2015, 2014, and 2013.
