Lady Broncos fall by 22

In District 9-A action Tuesday night at Boyd Christian, the Lady Broncos continued to have problems with turnovers and suffered another league loss.

Boyd turned the ball over 15 times in the first period, allowing the Lady Cougars of Middle Tennessee Christian to jump out to an early lead on the way to a 66-44 win. Boyd dropped to 0-8 in district play, while the Lady Cougars improved to 6-2.

The Lady Cougars took the opening tip and never looked back. MTCS ran off five straight points before the Lady Broncos? Virgina Prater hit a 3-pointer at the 5:52 mark, which would be Boyd?s only bucket of the period. MTCS went on to score 11 points in the remaining five minutes to take a 16-3 lead by the end of the quarter.

In the second period Boyd did a much better job of holding on to the ball, but the Lady Cougar offense continued to control the game. Boyd scored 14 points in the period with baskets from Prater, Olivia Newby and Cassie Wanamaker ? who hit for nine points, including a 3-pointer just before the half. But the Lady Broncos still trailed 29-17 at the break.

Lindsey Lee hit for four quick points to open the third quarter for the Lady Cougars. MTCS hit the boards on both ends of the floor as Katie Dunn pitched in eight of the Lady Cougars? 24 points in the period. Boyd struggled on offense with nine points in the period. Prater, Leah Walker, Lyndsey King and Courtney Hard provided the offense for Boyd, but by the end of the period MTCS had built a 53-26 lead.

Katie McKnight hit a 3-pointer and the Lady Cougars added three more points before Boyd went on a 13-point run in the game?s final stanza. Prater hit a 3-pointer and Walker added a jumper from the paint. Boyd then hit 8-of-10 from the free-throw line over a three-minute period. Samantha Barrett closed out the game for the Lady Cougars with two baskets to nail down the victory.

For the Lady Broncos, Walker had 12 points. Prater and Wanamaker added 11 points each. Hard added five, King had three and Newby had two points.