Lady Titans Fight Off Late Surge From Flyers
The Harrodsburg Herald/April Ellis
The Mercer County Lady Titans and coaching staff celebrated their win over the Garrard County Lady Golden Lions to advance to the Class 2A state tournament this weekend in Owensboro.
Wesley Bird
Herald Staff
[email protected]
The Mercer County Titans girls basketball team (8-5) defeated the Franklin County Flyers (4-8) 53-47 on Thursday, Jan. 8.
Mercer cruised through the first half with great outside shooting and good ball movement to give them a double-digit lead at halftime. Franklin County fought back into the game late in the fourth quarter, but the Titans’ defense held strong to secure the win.
Sophomore Maddi Baker put the Titans on the scoreboard with an offensive rebound and a shot in the paint, 2-0. After back-to-back buckets from the Flyers, Sophomore Alexa Wade regained the lead for the Titans with a corner three, 5-4. Mercer racked up a quick five points with junior Izzie Carlton doing work in the paint, and freshman Annie Releford knocked down a 3-pointer, 10-4. Carlton closed out the quarter with another two points at the rim and Mercer’s defense held to give them an eight-point lead, 12-4.
The second quarter started with Carlton finding sophomore Olive Frisby for a 3-pointer to give the Titans a double-digit lead, 15-4. A big block from Carlton turned in two more points for Baker at the rim, 17-4. Carlton kept the offense humming with two free throws for herself and found Wade open in the corner for another 3-pointer, 22-6.
Coming out of a Franklin County timeout, the Flyers had two different chances at the free-throw line, but couldn’t capitalize. Mercer went cold in the final four minutes on offense, and the Flyers scored four points to cut the Titans’ lead to 14 going into halftime, 24-10.
The Titans’ offense was working well in and outside the arc for the first 2 minutes of the game, and the Flyers couldn’t find any rhythm. Mercer connected on four 3-pointers with three different players hitting from deep. Carlton controlled both paints and was the tallest player by far in the game.
The Flyers scored six straight points to start the second half, with Mercer’s first points coming from Baker at the rim.
