By Jeremy D. Wells
Carter County Times
Carter County’s high school basketball players are preparing for District play after a regular season that suffered from almost as many cancelled games as games played for some teams. Those cancellations, related to the COVID-19 coronavirus and measures meant to keep teams and spectators safe, hit the East Carter teams especially hard.
The East Carter boys played only ten games, ending their season with a 6-4 win-loss record. They had nine games in a row cancelled or rescheduled, between January 18 and February 8, due to the COVID policy.
Over on the West Carter side the team also suffered a dry January, with no games between January 11 and February 3. Their third round, 16th Region tournament game against Raceland had to be rescheduled twice before they were finally able to play – and take home the Regional title.
Despite a dry month, the Comets were able to squeeze more games into their season than the Raiders, ending their season in fourth place for the region, with a win-loss record of 10-6.
Both of the girls teams got in more games than their male compatriots, but with a similar number of cancellations.
The East Carter girls’ team had nine games total cancelled or rescheduled due to the coronavirus policy. This included most of the month of January, eight games in a row, and not playing again until their February 6 game against Menifee County following their January 9 loss to Boyd County. Their next scheduled game against Boyd County, on February 13, was also cancelled.
The Lady Raiders played only 14 games and ended their regular season with a win-loss record of 5-9.
The Lady Comets had nine games cancelled too, but their cancellations were more spread out, with the longest streak of cancelled or rescheduled games at six. Despite this the West Carter girls ended their season strong, in fifth place for the region with a win-loss record of 12-7.
District play in the 62nd District began this week, with the Lady Comets scheduled to start their post-season on Tuesday, against Elliott County, and the Lady Raiders against Morgan County on the same night. Game results were not available at press time.
The West Carter boys started their season on Monday night with a 62-43 win over Morgan County.
The East Carter boys, meanwhile, faced off against Elliott County in district play, taking home a loss with a score of 43-58.
Contact the writer at editor@cartercountytimes.com