Miranda H. Lewis
Carter County Times
Led by its tenacious defense, East Carter (6-11) led from start to finish en route to a dominant, 71-25 home victory over Elliott County (7-12) in girls basketball action Friday night.
Facing the Raider’s full-court pressure, the Lions struggled with turnovers and couldn’t get into an offensive flow. East Carter capitalized on those turnovers with layups on the other end and never looked back.
“We did a good job putting pressure on them and converting turnovers into points,” said East Carter Coach Matthew Clark.
MaKyla Waggoner led the way in the win for East Carter. The senior had a game-high 23 points.
Waggoner earned her second straight game scoring 20 points or more.
While she was busy lighting it up on offense, Waggoner was just as good on defense. She directed traffic and controlled the boards with seven rebounds.
Freshmen, Cadence Roberts, Tori Bishop and Avery Hall provided a spark early on for the Lady Raiders.
The underclassmen played with poise and earned high quality varsity minutes.
Roberts scored in stride, shooting 4-of-5 from the field, emerging with ten points.
Bishop collected eight points and Hall added seven points for East Carter.
“Our girls did a good job moving the basketball offensively and took advantage of some open looks they got,” said Clark.
With 11 players seeing the court against the Elliott County Lions, there’s at least one thing Clark knows: his team has depth.
“We have a lot of girls that continue to push each other at practice and that’s what it takes for us to take the next step as a team,” he said.
The Lady Raiders made 37% of their field goals, 29% of their triples and 50% of their free throws.
LOOKING AHEAD
“Moving forward I hope we continue to get better as a team and really just focus on the things we can control. We are playing pretty good team basketball right now and I obviously want to see that continue,” said Clark.
The Lady Raiders are scheduled to face several tough opponents as they close out January, starting on Monday when they hit the road for regional action against Lewis County.
East Carter 71
Elliott County 25
East Carter (71) – Waggoner 23, Roberts 10, Bishop 8, Hall 7, Bush 5, Moore 5, Boggs 5, Adams 5, Rutledge 3, Ockerman, Tussey, 3-Pt. FG:9/31 FT: 2/4. Fouls:.
Elliott County (25) – Stats were not available at time of reporting.