CJ Staff Report
The Somerset Christian Cougars girls basketball team finished second in the inaugural Cougar Christmas Classic, losing to the KCAA's top-ranked team Lakeside Christian in the championship game.
The Cougars started the tournament on fire, beginning the tournament on a 22-2 run against Victory Christian of Scottsville, Ky. and cruising to a 52-21 win. Eighth-grader Shea O'Hair led the host Cougars with 13 points, while displaying some of the toughest defensive pressure seen by any player in the tournament.
"We emphasized the need to jump on them early with pressure and had to call off the dogs so to speak earlier than we anticipated. We played the best defense we've played all year. Our girls wanted to win badly and it showed. We had too much intensity and quickness for them."
The visiting Lady Knights had no answer for O'Hair's outside shooting and the penetrating game of junior point guard Jessica Bartley. Eight players scored in the balanced SCS attack included O'Hair 13, Jessica Bartley 10, Lauren Dungan 8, Amy Rice 8, Emma Frost 5, Ashley Glass 3, Dakota Stringer 2, Alex Bartley 2.
In their second game, the Cougars flexed their muscle inside, repeatedly drawing fouls while establishing their vaunted post game while downing Danville Christian Academy 47-36. Point guard Jessica Bartley routinely slashed and dashed and dished to the post while displaying skills that made her a unanimous pick for the All-Tournament Team. Freshman center Lauren Dungan played her best game of the season so far and led the Cougars with 15 points, while going 7 of 14 from the line. Jessica Bartley finished with 14 points while going 6 of 10 from the charity stripe, Sophomore power forward Ashley Glass had 9 points, Amy Rice added 7 and Shea O'Hair added 2 points. The Cougars finished 17-35 from the free-throw line. Head
Coach Jamie Middleton was pleased that the team got to the line so many times, but stressed that better focus was needed. "We made it a point of emphasis to go to the basket with authority to draw fouls and establish our post play early throughout the game",said Middleton. We did exactly what we planned to do and if we could have made more free throws it would not have been as close of a game as it was. We dominated the rebounding and the low post and those were the differences in the game.”
The championship game featured a unique twist in that under KCAA rules, the game did not count in the KCAA standings since it was not a regularly scheduled league game. That allowed Somerset Christian to count it as an exhibition game.
"That rule benefitted us immensely", stated Middleton. “Some of our girls brought the same intensity and approach as the earlier games, however some had fear in their eyes as soon as they saw the "Lakeside" on the opponent's jerseys. That led to forgetting plays, forgetting assignments, and all sorts of crazy things. We did some things well that we wanted to do and looked like a good team for small stretches, and then we would look like we had never played basketball before.
“Once we can get everyone to believe that we can actually compete with Lakeside, and not just a few people believing, then we will make a game of it. We look forward to that day in the future,” added Middleton.
The Cougars were led by Lauren Dungan with 10 points.
"We are ecstatic that we played for a championship in just our second year of varsity play and fourth year overall since re-starting the program", said Middleton. “It teaches our girls that hard work does have its rewards; however we are not satisfied with finishing second. Our girls want to be in first place and that attitude will help us achieve great things this year and in the future."
Somerset Christian is now 6-2 on the season and returns to action on Jan. 4th when they host Victory Christian of Scottsville, Ky.
