GLASGOW—After nine long seasons, Barren County is finally back on top of the 15th District.
The Trojanettes built up a 14-point lead in the first half behind a strong start from junior McKenzie England, and Barren County was able to hold off a second-half rally by archrival Glasgow to record a 57-43 victory over the host Lady Scotties in the 15th District Championship Game on Thursday night—marking the first district title for Barren since the 2008-09 season.
“It’s extremely exciting,” Barren County coach Piper Lindsey said. “Just super proud of the girls for the way that they fought from Day One. To continue to fight and battle…I’m just so proud of the girls for being able to do that.”
“It’s incredible,” said Hadleigh Hammer, who is Barren County’s lone senior. “Obviously it was my last opportunity to (win districts), and it’s just the fact that we all bought in to what we’ve been told throughout the years. After all the adversity we have faced it finally happened for us. It didn’t happen overnight. We all came together and played team ball and just did what had to be done.”
The Trojanettes (25-6) would not get the district crown so easily though as Barren had to fend off a furious rally by Glasgow in the second half—a task that the Trojanettes failed to do in a 41-39 overtime loss to the Lady Scotties back on Jan. 26.
But Barren County was able to handle the Lady Scotties’ pressure and answer back with a run of its own to seal the win—something that Lindsey views as a sign of improvement from that loss nearly four weeks ago.
“We were pretty upset at ourselves after that game,” Lindsey said. “It was kind of a wake-up call: like we have to take care of the basketball and know what we’re doing in a situation like that. I think they grew up in that moment and obviously it proved tonight.”
Barren County came right out of the gates firing, owning a 11-3 advantage at the end of the first quarter thanks to 10 points from England, who connected on three consecutive mid-range jumpers to open the game.
“We’ve always worked on that elbow jumper,” Lindsey said. “She just stepped up confident and shot the ball. She’s one that can knock down that 15-footer.”
“When I stepped up and hit that first one it overwhelmed me,” England said. “(My teammates) saw me open, and I just stepped up and knocked down shots.”
The Trojanettes built their lead up to 21-7 in the second quarter before the Lady Scotties rattled off six unanswered points to chip the deficit back down to single digits.
Barren County junior Bailey Pedigo netted a 3-pointer to push the lead back to double digits, and the Trojanettes held a 26-15 lead at the intermission.
But the Lady Scotties were not finished just yet.
Glasgow (21-9) cut the deficit down to 31-26 late in the third quarter before Bailey Pedigo splashed a 3-pointer and then scored on a driving layup as time expired to give Barren a 36-26 lead going into the fourth.
Barren led for double-digits for much of the frame before Glasgow freshman Anzley Adwell hit a trifecta to narrow the Trojanettes’ lead to 44-36 with 1:44 remaining.
Bailey Pedigo hit a free throw to push the lead to nine before Glasgow sophomore Kayla Bradley scored a basket to make it a seven-point game with 1:27 left.
Mallory Pedigo was fouled and hit two free throws to put Barren back up by nine, but Bradley once again answered the bell with a bucket.
Barren County sophomore Karleigh Delk the scored on a breakaway layup to propel the Trojanettes back in front by nine. Barren came up with a stop on its ensuing defensive possession and threw a long outlet pass to Delk, who saved it from going out-of-bounds by doing a crafty behind-the-back pass to fellow sophomore Elizabeth Bertram for the basket that drove the nail into the coffin and sent the Trojanettes to their first district tournament championship in nine seasons.
Even though his team fell short, Glasgow coach Justin Stinson was still proud of his young Lady Scotties’ team that continues to defy low preseason expectations.
“I thought our kids responded the right way,” Stinson said. “(Barren County) got off to a good start and we dug ourselves in a hole early, but we fought back and made a basketball game of it. We got it down to five early in the third quarter and I thought we had a chance to make it a basketball game. But then we were a little bit loose with the basketball and didn’t even get a shot up and it kind of got away from us at that point. But our kids really fought hard, and most people didn’t even expect us to be here. I’m very proud of our team.”
Bradley led the Lady Scotties in the loss with 16 points while Hale added nine on three 3-pointers.
Barren County was led in the win by Bertram with 15 points while Bailey Pedigo tallied 13. England and Delk finished with 12 points apiece for the Trojanettes.
Both the Trojanettes and Lady Scotties advance to the Fourth Region Tournament at Western Kentucky University next week. The teams will know their first-round opponent after the drawing on Saturday morning.
