Road weary Lady Cougars finish regular season 6-14
By Rex Overholser

Carroll's Lady Cougars had a tough week to finish regular season with three games all away from the friendly confines of Carroll High School. The Cougars played their hearts out on Jan. 30 at Tri County, only to lose in a double overtime thriller 55-52. They showed exhaustion and frustration in the final two losses of the season with back-to-back losses of 51-41 and 48-29 to Frontier and Lewis Cass.

The Cougars will face the tough Lafayette Central Catholic Knights on Friday at 6 p.m. in the Frontier Class A sectional.

The Cougars battled a solid Tri County Lady Cavalier team (12- 7) with a lot of emotion and effort before just falling short in double overtime. The Cougars relied on the sharp-shooting effort of Krystal Brazel, who sank six 3 pointers to lead the Cougars with 19 points. The Cougars jumped out to 13-11 lead a the end of the first quarter and steadily increased the lead to an impressive 23-12 with just over 1:30 seconds to play in the first half. The final 1:30 segment of the first half saw the Lady Cavs come back with solid defense to force 5 quick Carroll errors. Tri County regained the momentum going into the half by scoring 10 quick points to take a one point advantage, 23-22.

The Cougars came back out in the second half and quickly increased the lead to 29-23. That was to be the end of the lead for the Cougars as Morgan Meyer began to torch the nets for 10 of her 24 points and the Cavs came back to trail by 1 point, 31-30, at the end of the third quarter. The fourth quarter saw the Cougars and Cavs trade baskets and set up the wild finish.

Tri County took a 3-point lead in regulation with over a minute to go. Brazel nailed a well defended 3-point shot to force the tie with 4 seconds left. The Cougars quickly took a lead in the first overtime and held it until 28 seconds to go when Chelsea Anker hit 2 free throws to tie the game. The second overtime saw fatigue set in with most of the offense going away as the Cougars could only muster 2 points in the final segment and looked to be headed for another overtime when Morgan Meyer hit her final 3 pointer with 18 seconds left to seal the victory.

Abby Reinke (14) and Jaime McCarter (4) played the game with flu-like symptoms to add to the 6-point efforts by Courtney Hall and Ashley Miller. The Cougars fell to 6-12.

The Lady Cougars JV team got a solid effort by Sarah Griffin with 10 points and Lucy Zook with 9 to lead the Cougars to a 21-16 victory. This effort resulted in the Cougars ninth win of the season.

The Lady Cougars traveled to Frontier Thursday night to play on their sectional floor. The Falcons were trying to finish their season with a 12-8 record. It was senior night for the Falcons and they quickly jumped out to a 10- point lead and continued to pound the ball into the middle and quickly take care of business for the 52-41 win. Carroll looked tired and emotionally spent from the tough loss at Tri County and they never recovered to mount any serious threat to the Falcons. The game saw the Falcons' inside game dominate the Cougars as the Falcons appeared to be much fresher with their steps. The Falcons displayed more athleticism and moved the ball much crisper to cage the Cougars on their home floor. Brazel led the Cougars with 11 points.

The JV team saw the Cougars win with a fine game by Lucy Zook, Erynn Feasel and Sarah Griffin.

The final game of the season saw the Lady Cougars trek their way to Lewis Cass on a cold Saturday morning. The Cougars had to face another Senior Day and this gave the Lady Kings the upper hand to win easily with a 48-29 victory over the exhausted Cougars. The Kings improved to 8-12 with several of their losses coming against tougher 2A opponents.

The Cougars held tough in the first quarter, trailing 11-8, but Emily Watkins soon took over with three quick 3 pointers in the second quarter. The Cougars melted. The stats told the story for the emotionally drained Cougars who only hit 5 of 10 total shots in the first half and committed 16 turnovers. The Cougars went into the locker room at half-time trailing 29-13 and the rest of the game was history as the hosts continued to add to their lead, winning the game by a 48-29 margin.

Brazel again brought her 3- point game, hitting three of the long-range bombers for 9 points. Jaime McCarter used her speed to gain 7 points on lay-ups and Kara Overholser and Reinke added 4 points a piece to pace the Cougars.

Coach Katie Seward's JV team finished the season with a 21-16 loss to the Kings for an overall season record of 10-6. Overholser led the Cougars in scoring with 5 points in one quarter of JV play.