By Cody Evans
The East Carter Lady Raiders improved to 15-3 Saturday night with a 45-38 win over rival West Carter (6-7).
A sloppy first quarter saw the two teams score only seven combined points. In the second quarter, each team found its stride, with East carrying a 21-15 advantage into halftime.
The Lady Raiders maintained a steady lead into the final period before West mounted a brief comeback effort. With just under five minutes remaining, the Lady Comets drew to within two points but were unable to take the lead. East again extended their lead, taking a 41-32 advantage into the game’s final minute.
West sent East Carter players to the free-throw line six times in the game’s closing minute as an attempt to conserve valuable seconds. East’s Jordan Parsons, Kristin Easterling and Courtney Sparks each went to the charity stripe once. Junior Lakota Burge saw the line three times as the game wound down. Sparks and Eastering were unable to make their shots but Burge and Parsons picked up the slack. Parsons hit 1-of-2 and Burge managed 3-of-6 for the final points necessary to seal the win.
Burge tallied a game-high 14 points. East senior Jess Marshall was second with 13. Junior Kristin Perry led all West Carter scorers with 12.
“It’s a big win because it’s our rival and our neighbor, plus it’s a district-seeding game, which makes us 6-0 in the district,” East Carter coach Hager Easterling said. “I was happy because I went into the locker room after the game and there was no celebrating, they were upset with themselves. They know they’re better than what they showed out here tonight. It’s only good, win or lose, if you learn from it.”
Easterling said his team played tense throughout the game, despite coming out on top.
“That’s not East Carter right there. That’s not the way East Carter plays basketball,” Easterling said. “That’s not the way that we go out there and go after it. We don’t want people giving us anything, we want to be the kind of team that goes out there and goes for the kill.”
West Carter coach Tex English had similar complaints about his team, blaming poor offense for the loss.
“We just need to get into the gym and work a little bit harder on the offensive execution. I thought our defense was good enough to win the ball game,” English said. “We held East Carter to 45 points even though 6 or 8 of them were because we were fouling, so if you can put East Carter in the 30s-to-low 40s range, you should have a chance to win and I don’t think we had a chance to win. We never really got close there at the end.”
The Lady Raiders will host two home games this week. The East gals face off with Greenup on Thursday and Russell on Saturday. Both games are set to tip off at 7:30 p.m.
