By Leeann Tanner - Staff Writer
The Lady Raiders moved to 19-4 on the season in the last week, taking down Fairview and Russell, but falling at Rowan County.
On Wednesday, East’s gals traveled to Fairview for a 62-44 victory over the Lady Eagles.
“Fairview is an improving team,” Coach Hager Easterling said. “They are young, but they are going to be beating some people very soon.”
East had worked up a 30-point lead by the third quarter and Easterling was able to sub in several of his younger players.
“It’s good when you can reward people who are working hard in practice every day and may not be seeing a lot of time on the floor,” Easterling said. “Everyone got minutes on the floor and played well.”
The Lady Raiders made it 10 wins in a row Thursday night with a win at home over Russell, 52-44.
“It was a very hard fought game,” Easterling said. “We missed a lot of foul shots in the second half or we would have won by double figures.”
East’s gals went 5-for-12 at the line for the game. Jessica Marshall led the Lady Raiders in scoring with 18 points and Lakota Burge put up 14. Courtney Sparks had 11 and Emily Slone put up five. Taylor Wilson and Ashley Sargent had two each. Jordan Parsons, Kristin Easterling, and Jade Stumbo each nailed one from the charity stripe.
East’s gals traveled to Rowan County on Monday night in a rematch of the EKC title game. East took home the championship in December, but the Lady Vikings got their revenge with a 53-44 victory as they celebrated senior night.
“Most of the time on senior night a team will play jacked up on emotions or drained of them,” Easterling said. “I am proud of our kids. They fought through emotions. We have battled through 23 games, I am sure that‘s what we will do the rest of the year, too.”
East opened the second half to tie the game at 25-25, but Rowan went on a 16-2 run to lead by 14. The Lady Raiders weren’t ready to hang their heads and countered with an 11-0 run. Jessica Marshall nailed three consecutive threes with under a minute to play in the third, cutting Rowan’s lead to three.
East’s gals had the chance to take over in the opening minutes of the fourth, but suffered three turnovers. The Lady Raiders battled into the final seconds of play, but were unable to grab the win.
Marshall led the way offensively for East Carter with 17 points and Burge put up 12.
“Our kids played extremely hard and I am proud of them for that,” Easterling said. “We had our chances to win it, but we missed some key shots. In the end we just had too many turnovers.”
East had 23 turnovers for the game.
Rowan’s win broke the Lady Raider’s 10-game winning streak, but East is ready to bounce back.
“We just have to learn from our mistakes,” Easterling said. “We have to go on and focus on working harder and getting better.”
The Lady Raiders will travel to Lewis County Thursday. The two teams met during the EKC tournament, which resulted in a win for East.
“They are a rebuilding team this season,” Easterling said. “They have some good young players.”
East will play host to Menifee on Monday and will celebrate senior night before the 7:30 p.m. tip off. The Lady Raiders will honor Kristin Easterling, Courtney Sparks, Emily Slone, and Jessica Marshall.
“Emotions will be high, so we will have to see how we handle it,” Easterling said. “These kids have handled everything pretty well this year. They are a great bunch of kids and I am really proud of them.”
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