During a season when a break in the schedule has been all but impossible to find, the youthful Harlan County Lady Bears enjoyed a rare breather Friday against visiting Oneida Baptist as they ended a five-game losing streak.
Harlan County capitalized on 10 first-quarter turnovers to build a 25-0 lead in the first six minutes and coasted from there to a 90-24 win as 12 of 13 Lady Bears in uniform reached the scoring column.
“We’ve played a brutal schedule. We haven’t dodged anyone and played the best of the best in our region and a couple of other regions,” Harlan County coach Gary Greer said. “That could be mentally draining on a young team to keep losing. It’s good to get a win for confidence. We have a stretch of games coming up where we feel we can compete. We made some shots and did some things that I hope we can carry on to tomorrow.”
Jaylee Cochran and Kylee Runions, both freshman, led the 5-15 Lady Bears with 19 and 18 points, respectively. Eighth-grade center Raegan Landa came off the bench to add 10 points and nine rebounds. Junior center Lacey Robinson had 14 rebounds.
Junior forward Bailey Bristow led the 2-11 Lady Mountaineers with 17 points.
Cochran had four baskets in the first period, and Robinson pulled down eight rebounds as Harlan County took a 32-6 lead.
Runions hit all four of her shots in the second quarter as the HCHS lead grew to 62-14 by halftime.
Landa and Cochran had two baskets each in the third period as Greer substituted heavily the entire second half with a running clock.
Eighth-grade guard Kelsie Middleton had three baskets in the fourth quarter while Vanessa Griffith and Brooke Haywood added one each as the Lady Bears outscored OBI 16-2.
Harlan County returns to action Saturday at Barbourville in a 5:30 p.m. game.