No one in the 7th District has played Madisonville-North Hopkins closer than 25 points all season.
At 25-1, ranked in the state’s Top 10 and riding an eight-game winning streak, the Lady Maroons are the clear favorites for the district tournament, which they will host starting Monday night.
Madisonville’s only setback this season came on Jan. 18, a 66-52 loss at Henderson County.
Senior Courtney Peyton, the runner-up in the 2nd Region Player of the Year voting, leads Madisonville at 18.7 points a game. Her twin sister, Lindsey, tops the team in rebounding at 6.8 boards a contest while also scoring at a 9.6 clip. Both Peytons are 5-foot-11.
Sophomore guard Camryn LaGrange is second on both stat lists, netting 15.7 points and 6.2 rebounds. She also shoots 41.3 percent from 3-point range.
Top-seeded Madisonville will take on No. 4 Dawson Springs in the first semifinal game at 6:00 on Monday.
The Lady Panthers are 12-18 but dropped their two games to the Lady Maroons this season by 28 and 45 points.
Freshman guard Brooklyn Clark averages almost 21 points a game and has already gone over 1,000 career points as a Lady Panther. Senior Denisha Randolph is averaging 10 points a contest.
The late semifinal game on Monday at 7:30 features No. 2-seed Caldwell County and No. 3 Hopkins County Central.
The Lady Tigers swept the Lady Storm during the regular season but both games were competitive. Caldwell won 55-48 in Princeton and 47-37 in a late-season matchup that was played at South Hopkins Middle School in Nortonville.
Caldwell is 15-13 but has been plagued by injuries the second half of the season.
Junior guard Jacey Jaggers averages 12.9 points a game while senior post player Bella McConnell scores 12.6 points and grabs a team-high 6.5 rebounds a game.
Junior Majah Hollowell took over the point guard duties when senior Jada Boyd suffered a severe knee injury in January. Hollowell gets 8.5 points a game.
Hopkins Central is 9-17 but played better later in the season. The Lady Storm won three of their last five games.
Junior guard Madison Grigg leads Hopkins Central at 12.4 points a game. She sent the Lady Storm into the postseason with a lot of momentum when her long 3-pointer in the closing seconds beat Lyon County 59-58 in the regular-season finale on Thursday.
Freshman Mercy Sutton leads the squad in rebounds at 6 a contest.
Monday’s winners not only advance to the district championship game on Thursday at 7:00, but also earn a berth in the 2nd Region tournament, which will be played the following week at Christian County.
The last three seasons have seen three different champions in the 7th District. Madisonville is the defending champion. Caldwell won two years ago while Hopkins Central claimed the crown in 2017.
