Lady Cats Roll Over Greenwood For Seventh Straight Win

Emma Rose Vincent, Caitlin Simon, Chanley Logsdon, and Peyton Martin advance the floor against Greenwood.

Record For Season Wins Grows To 26-4

Darren Doyle, story: Madison Doyle, photos:
The Edmonson County Lady Cats cruised to their 26th win of the season, a new school record, in a victory over Greenwood, 55-27. It was their seventh win in a row and their 13th out of their last 14.

The Lady Cats jumped out to a 15-4 lead in the first quarter and never looked back. Led by seniors Peyton Martin (15 points, 3 assists) and Caitlin Simon (14 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists), Edmonson County's defense held the Lady Gators to only 14 points at halftime.

Caitlin Simon drives around Jaqueline Jackson from Greenwood.

Edmonson County shot 54% from the field and shared a team 17 assists. The win comes on the same day that  Simon was named as a finalist for Miss Kentucky Basketball as the third region representative, and as Head Coach Kevin Jackson was named KABC's Region 3 Girl's Coach of the Year for the second year in a row.

All five players scored at the beginning of the third quarter that started and Edmonson County 13-0 run that put the game out of reach from Greenwood.

"It's hard to defend a team when you've got five different kids scoring," he said. "Everybody's scoring, everybody's contributing, and that's what it's going to take if this team makes a deep run in the (region) tournament. It goes back to defense. When you hold the other team to 27 points, you're going to win a lot of ballgames. That's been our focus for the last two weeks and I so proud that they're trying to stick to the game plan."

Jackson  shared his reaction to winning the coaching award for the second year in a row.

"Well, you don't do that without a great team," he said. "How many times have you seen a coach of the year win six ballgames? It just don't happen, so I'm going to share that award with our kids. It's just kind of icing on the cake for tonight and for the season. I really appreciate that, and thanks to all the coaches in the third region, I'm really honored because there's a lot of good ones out there."

Peyton Martin dribbles against Greenwood's Rachel Evans.

"We've worked so hard over the last three years to get to this point," Jackson continued. "It didn't happen overnight, but here's what you worry about as a coach: we're 26 and 4, what a great season. But on Monday night (district tournament) we're zero and zero. Butler County is zero and zero so anything can happen from this point on. But if we can play Lady Cat basketball, we can make a deep run in the tournament and have a great two weeks coming up."

Simon's point total increased to 2,474 after tonight's win. In addition to Simon and Martin, Katlin Collins added 8, Madison Harrison and Emma Rose Vincent each had 6, and Chanley Logsdon had 5.

Edmonson County has earned the number one seed in the district tournament that begins at Trinity on Monday, February 19. They are set to take on fourth-seeded Butler County at 6pm. A loss will be the end to the season but a win will put them into the district championship game on Thursday and a guaranteed spot in the regional tournament the following week.