Leading only 27-22 at the halftime break, Monroe County retuned their focus in the third quarter, holding Barren County to four points in the third quarter on their way to claiming their fist 15th District crown since 2011 with a win over Barren County, 58-48.
Coming into Thursday night’s matchup with the Trojanettes, Monroe County coach Dwayne Murray knew that it would be no cakewalk.
“Barren County has played very well and I think that they just get better each and every week,” said Murray. “I told the girls before that this wasn’t going to be a pushover game like the two games before. It’s been a good experience for us to play good teams in close situations. You’re not going to blow everybody out.” 
Barren County proved that toughness after trailing 8-2 after the first three minutes of the game by battling back to tie the game at 15 after the first quarter.
“I thought we played tough even though we went down in the beginning,” said Trojanettes head coach Piper Lindsey. “I think that we would’ve folded in this situation a few weeks ago.”
Instead of folding, Barren flirted with the Lady Falcons’ lead by answering opposing buckets and playing up to Monroe’s pace to trail by only five at halftime. After upsetting Glasgow on Monday night, it seemed that the Trojanettes had a chance at being the district Cinderalla Story.
“We weren’t very focused in the first half. We made some minor adjustments in the second half and came back out and regained focus,” said Murray. “We played like we should’ve played in the first half.”And focused they were. The Lady Falcons outscored Barren 12-4 in the third quarter to blow open a 40-29 lead going into the final period.
Throughout the fourth quarter, Monroe answered virtually every Trojanette bucket and would not give the opposition the chance to crawl back in to the game.
“(Monroe County) picked it up in the third quarter,” said Lindsey. “We didn’t take care of the basketball and they scored easily in transition, which is something that they do very well.”
Despite the 55-41 deficit, freshman guard Elizabeth Bertram scored eight of her team-high 18 points in the final 35 seconds to attempt to bring the Trojanettes back, but to no avail.
“I like how we battled back. That could of easily been a 20-point loss. The girls played together, got defensive stops and scored the basketball,” Lindsey exclaimed. “We have never really known how it feels to play in a district game in this type of atmosphere. I think we responded really well to that.”
Continuing her fine district tournament play, Reagan Turner scored 25 points to lead the Lady Falcons and gave Barren fits even when she didn’t have the ball.
“I knew my job was to score the basketball and look for the best option when it became available,” Turner said. “We have all been playing with each other since third grade and we’ve never really had the feeling of win like this. It’s like walking on air right now.” 
Bertram’s 18 points led Barren County while Bailey Pedigo added 13. Ashley McGeorge scored 12 for Monroe County.
Both teams will play in the 4th Region Tournament at Diddle Arena in Bowling Green next week. Matchups will be drawn on Saturday morning.
