LAUREL COUNTY, Ky. — Through three quarters in Tuesday night’s game against Clay County, the South Laurel Cardinals were shooting just 16.6 percent and found themselves down by 20, 44-24.

How cold were the Cardinals? Try 7-of-42 shooting from the field. If you wanted to put a soundtrack to this game, the first cut would have been Foreigner’s “Cold as Ice.”

“We missed a lot of open shots we normally hit,” coach Jeff Davis said. “We looked like we were tired. We had tired, tired legs.”

Against a team like Clay County, tired is the last thing you want to be. And the Tigers took full advantage of this with a  64-47 win. Clay County (18-10) trailed just once in the game, 3-2, when a Zac Baxter drained a three with 5:30 left in the first. It would be the only points for the South Laurel freshman in the game.

The Tigers led 12-4 after one, as that three by Baxter was the only field goal the Cardinals managed in the quarter. South (9-18) were 1-of-12 in the quarter.

Besides missing shots, the Cardinals were also getting schooled on the boards, as Clay County outrebounded South Laurel 22-9 in the first half, which allowed them several second and third chances to score.

“They got two or three chances,” Davis said. “We stood there and watched.”

Clay didn’t let up in the third quarter as the lead grew to 20 heading into the fourth. The Tigers started to sub in the fourth, and that gave the Cardinal offense a chance to get its second wind. After scoring just 24 points through three, South Laurel had 23 in the fourth quarter, led by seven from Jeff Hale and six by Trevor Grubb.

 But the Tigers had built too big of a lead for South Laurel to come back on. Tyler McDaniel led four Clay County players in double figures with 22. Zach McGeorge, Stephon Lyttle and Kody Reed all had 11 points. Hale was the only Cardinal to finish in double figures with 17.

For the game, Clay outrebounded South, 38-20. The Tigers shot 39 percent, hitting 25-of-64, while South finished at 31 percent, connecting on 15-of-48. The Cards were 13-of-23 from the free throw line, while Clay was 10-of-19.

“You gotta be able to move the ball when you aren’t hitting,” Davis said. “You’ve got to be able to get the ball inside and have patience. In the fourth quarter we did work the ball around and attacked the inside more. Clay has a very good team. They are disciplined and well coached.”

For South, it was the Cardinals third game in five days. And not just any games. A win over county rival North Laurel on Friday, followed by a loss at No. 10 George Rogers Clark on Saturday, then Tuesday night’s Clay game, always a tough one for South Laurel. The Cards now have six days off before a trip to No. 5 Madison Central Feb. 13.

“It’s been a tough stretch but now we get a little break,” Davis said. “But the schedule doesn’t get any easier the final week of the season. We can’t cry about the schedule. We’ve just got to keep getting better. If we make a few shots tonight it might have been different.”

After the Madison Central game, South will host Clinton County Feb. 14 then finish the regular season at Rockcastle County Feb. 17.



Clay County 64, South Laurel 47

Clay County    12  19  13  20—64

South Laurel     4  12    8  23—47

CLAY COUNTY (64)—McDaniel 22, McGeorge 11, Lyttle 11, Wagers 1, Reed 11, Word 4, Bowling 4.

SOUTH LAUREL (47)—Grubb 6, Anders 3, Jones 2, Miller 2, Rader 4, Allen 2, Baxter 3, J. Hale 17, Helton 1, L. Hale 1, Mitchell 4, Slavey 2.

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