Before the basketball season began at Whitley County Monday night, Lady Colonels Coach Larry Anderson could have stole a line from Forrest Gump about his team. They were like a box of chocolates, you never know what you will get.
With so many new faces, it was a comparable situation. Anderson said, “You don’t know who is going to be the leading scorer from one night to the other.”
On opening night, Nov. 30, it was eighth grader Kandace Craig scoring 12 points to lead the Lady Colonels to a 57-38 win over the Lady Generals of Jackson County.
“I really like that about my team,” he said. “We could have a different leading scorer each night. We’re unselfish and move it around until we get a good look at the basket.”
Anderson said his team got off to a slow start but began building momentum late in the first quarter on their way to a 15-5 lead.
“We didn’t shoot as well as I would like, but we forced them into a lot of turnovers early in the game,” said Anderson.
“We had a good mixture from the inside as well as the outside,” said Anderson, who picked up his 400 coaching career win.
Sierra Anderson added eight points to the Whitley County attack while Megan Blakley and Brandi Smith added six points each.
Anderson said that his team could get better on defense but he was pleased with their first effort of the year. Whitley County forced Jackson County into 11 first half turnovers as the Lady Colonels built a 33-20 lead at the half.
Whitley County (1-0) will get their first road test Thursday night when they travel to McCreary Central.
Whitley Co. 57, Jackson Co. 38
Jackson Co. 5 15 7 11- 38
Whitley Co. 15 18 11 13- 57
Jackson Co. (38) – Tillery 6, Cunigan 8, Bowling 12, Cannigan 5, Bowman 6, Rose 1.
Whitley Co. (57) – Leach 4, Jones 2, Moses 12, Rose 2, Anderson 8, Blakley 6, Craig 12, Smith 6, Daniels 3, Powers 2.
