[Stardust]

STANFORD — The Lincoln County girls will gladly take a do-over.
The Patriots know they were not at their best Wednesday night as they settled in at home for what they hope will be a long postseason run, but they were good enough to earn at least a couple more chances to get it right.
A solid showing on defense carried them to a 50-34 victory over Boyle County in a girls 45th District Tournament semifinal, the first of what could be as many as five tournament games in their own gymnasium.
Lincoln looked sharp at times, such as during a 20-2 run in the first half, but at other times the Patriots did things that coach Cassandra McWhorter said she hoped she wouldn’t see so late in the season.
“We did have our good moments in the game, and we had, unfortunately, bad moments in the game, probably more than I would like at this time of the year,” McWhorter said. “It’s in the past, you can’t change it, but you learn from it and you move on, and the good thing is we get another chance to play Friday night and hopefully ... show what we’re capable of doing and execute a little bit better.”
Emily Fox scored 21 points to lead Lincoln (20-9), which is one of the favorites to take the 12th Region title and is hosting the district and regional tournaments.
But the Patriots appeared to be at their best on defense, where they forced Boyle into 27 turnovers and gave the Rebels only 32 field-goal attempts.
“That kept us in the game, being able to make them turn the ball over, and we were fortunate to be able to get some things out of that, some layups and easy looks,” McWhorter said.
Boyle (15-16) overcame a rash of turnovers in the first 3 minutes and forced Lincoln into a few as it took a 7-2 lead midway through the first quarter, but the Rebels couldn’t recover after giving the ball up 11 times in the second quarter to finish the first half with more turnovers (18) than points (13).
Still, Boyle coach Greg Edwards was upbeat about the way the Rebels finished the game and the season.
“We made 18 turnovers in the first half, and despite all that I still felt pretty good at halftime. And ... in the third and fourth quarters even though things didn’t go great, it wound up 21-21 in the second half. We’ve just got to build on that,” Edwards said. “I told the girls I was proud of them and the year they’ve had.”
Boyle turned the ball over on its first three possessions and four of its first six, but the Rebels still got the jump on Lincoln with a trapping defense that Edwards said they hadn’t used all season.
“(It) kind of surprised them,” Edwards said. “But they’re a good team, and they’re going to adjust, and they adjusted. We knew we might get some easy things at the beginning of the game, but we knew we couldn’t sustain that same defense.”
Lincoln missed its first five shots from the field and had three early turnovers.
“Our shots didn’t fall early, and it seems when we don’t shoot the ball early on we let our intensity level drop,” McWhorter said.
It rose again late in the first quarter, when a putback by Rachel Spangler and a 3-point goal and a layup by Fox gave the Patriots a 9-7 lead and kicked off their 20-2 run. Fox scored 10 points during that 6-minute surge, which left Lincoln with a 22-9 lead with 5:05 left in the first half.
She opened the fourth quarter with four straight points, burying a 3-pointer with 7:00 to play to give Lincoln its largest lead at 42-20. But Boyle responded with seven straight points off Lincoln turnovers — they forced five in a row — and outscored the Patriots 14-8 the rest of the way.
“They’re tough. They’ve got a lot of weapons, and it’s hard to get much against them. We had our chances where we could’ve given up, and the girls have instilled in themselves this year to work no matter what,” Edwards said.
Hannah Harris scored 11 points and Kalin Bottoms added nine for Boyle, which shot 38 percent.

http://www.centralkynews.com/amnews/spor...9650.story