Lady Dragons capture two tournament titles over holiday break

It was a good holiday break for all three local girls’ basketball teams as they all picked up wins and in some cases got their rosters back to full strength heading into the new year and the meat of their respective schedules.

South OldhamThe Lady Dragons must have been very good as they picked up six straight wins and the titles in both tournaments they played in.SOHS won their own Lady Dragon Invitational, then won a round robin tourney at the Applebee’s Classic at Boyle County giving them six straight wins over the break.“We have been unimpressive the last two years over the break, but we won six games in 11 days this year,” SOHS coach Frank Wright said. “That’s really pretty good. We’ll take it and be happy about it and move forward.”The Lady Dragons won their own tournament with a 48-43 overtime win over North Bullitt, avenging a 14-point loss to the Lady Eagles earlier in the year.SOHS trailed by nine-points at the end of the third quarter, but rallied to take the lead with two minutes to go. North Bullitt managed to tie the game when Amber Thompson scored on a short jumper and hit a free throw to send the game into overtime.The Lady Dragons, however, dominated the overtime by limiting North Bullitt to just two points with a defense that keyed their comeback through the second half.“We just kind of wore them down with our defense,” Wright said. “We played really good defense against a good team.”The Lady Dragons got 19 points from Lauren Jones in the win and also got 15 from sixth-man Jordann McGuffin who came back strong from an ankle injury.SOHS opened the tourney with a 53-17 win over Southern and followed that with a 52-24 win over Seneca.At Boyle County, the Lady Dragons, 9-3, went 3-0 beating Fleming County, a good Grayson County team and edging Boyle 48-46 in their final game.We had three pretty good games down there,” Wright said. “If anything, it was good we were able to play through so many games in a short period of time. We haven’t hit our stride yet, but we’re getting there.”SOHS will host Oldham County at 6 p.m. Saturday.

Oldham CountyThe Lady Colonels also closed their break in strong fashion at the Kentucky Bank Classic at Bourbon County with a 66-56 win over Bryan Station.OCHS, 8-4, after opening the season 6-0, took a step up in competition over the break at Bourbon and at the Lady Panther Classic at PRP and held their own.“We had some tough games and I think we found out just how hard we need to play and what we need to do against the bigger, more athletic teams we are going to see now,” OCHS coach Jamie Dumstorf said. “It wasn’t until yesterday (Sunday) against Bryan Station we realized just how hard we had to play against those kind of teams.”More importantly for the Lady Colonels, frontline seniors Lindsay Melton and Tara Huckvale both picked up their play after getting off to a slow start.At Bourbon County, the 6-foot Melton averaged 15 points and 10 rebounds and was named the team’s MVP. The 6-foot-3 Huckvale averaged near a double-double as well and blocked 12 shots against Bryan Station.“Melton had an outstanding tournament and was great in every game,” Dumstorf said. “We were very pleased with the progess of Tara Huckvale too in terms of her being physical and being a presence inside.”OCHS’ guard play continued to be strong as Audri Beaudrie led with 26 points against Bryan Station. Ellen Ford’s floor play continued to improve and 5-foot-9 freshman Ericka Hardin moved into the starting lineup full time to solidify the perimeter.Along with the Bryan Station win, OCHS beat Bishop Brossart while losing to Tates Creek and Covington Holmes.At PRP, OCHS dropped its first game of the year 60-41 to Madisonville and lost to Moore while beating Atherton and Jeffersontown.

North OldhamThe Lady Mustangs had the lightest schedule of the three teams going 1-2 in the KSA tourney in Florida.The Lady Mustangs, 2-6, got a very big return from senior guard Emily Crutcher who missed the first five games after having her tonsils removed.In NOHS’ 71-45 win over Westover, CT., Crutcher exploded for 37 points including hitting 19 of 22 from the foul line.The Lady Mustangs also got 16 points from Olivia Raffli as both she and Crutcher hit four three-pointers.NOHS goes back into action tonight, Thursday, with a 7:30 p.m. home game against Waggener.

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