The JV and Varsity Lady Cougar basketball teams each picked up season opening wins Tuesday in Hillsville, with each earning dominating wins over the Carroll County Cavaliers.
The JV squad jumped out to a 24-0 lead before Carroll County scored their first points of the game with 3:45 remaining in the second quarter. Pulaski County continued to score while playing solid defense, taking a 38-2 lead at the halftime break. Their lead was 56-6 on a running clock at the end of the third quarter. The final quarter ended with the Lady Cougars up 63-8.
All players scored for the JV Lady Cougars. Ellie Russell led the way with 20 points. Raiven Hughes and Payton Harper scored 14 points each. Olivia King added 12 points. Olivia Duncan scored three and Dayonna Lewis scored two in the win.
Things were a little tighter for the varsity Lady Cougars. They were able to jump out to a quick 6-0 lead, but the young Carroll County squad continued to work. Pulaski County led 14-4 at the end of the first quarter and never looked back. They led 24-8 at the half and 33-12 at the end of the third quarter. The final score was 48-17 for the Lady Cougars, their first win over Carroll County in some time.
“It’s always good to get wins against Carroll County, but we can’t get too excited,” Lady Cougar Head Coach Scott Ratcliff said. “They’re going through some growing pains. They graduated a ton of starters from last year and are a pretty young team with a new head coach. They’ve got a great program, but it’s going to take them a while to get everything back together. They won’t be down for long.”
The Lady Cougars were led by Kaliyah Green with 12 points. Morgan Vest backed her up with 10 points. Caroline Bishop scored six. Emma Ritter added five points. Palyn Sweet and Ellie Macdonald scored four points each. Sophia Hanson chopped in three points. Reese Nolan and Taylor Goble scored two points each.
“I thought we did some good things tonight,” Coach Ratcliff said. “We made a few mistakes, but it was a good starting point. We need to keep busting our tails in practice and keep pushing ourselves. I thought our bench did a good job tonight and we got a lot of work out of everybody. We’ll get back to practice and take a look at the film, then start getting ready for our next game. We’ll be cheering for the boy’s team Wednesday against Floyd County, then we’re excited to play Magna Vista Friday and hope we see a good crowd come out for our home opener.”
Action Friday against Magna Vista will begin with the JV game at 5:30 p.m,, followed by the varsity game at approximately 7 p.m.