A 7-2 start to the season may be the best start in school history for the CFS Lady Eagles, according to fifth year Head Coach Trevor Jackson.
“A tremendous start for the girls, for the program…it’s what we’ve been building for”, Jackson said. “It’s why we’ve had some of those tough losses.”
Both losses this season have come against Carlisle County by nine points in each, 58-49 and 71-62, the most recent in the CCA Warrior Christmas Tournament. Both games close throughout which could have gone either way. According to Jackson, the experience of the Lady Comets showed down the stretch with their two seniors.
“We’re playing only six, seven people a game, but they all know their roles and they’re all contributing”, Jackson said. “It’s a total team effort. When everybody looks at us they’re going to look at stopping Gracie (Howard) and look at stopping Lily (Burnett), but we’ve got other people that can put the ball in the hole.”
In Tuesday’s Silver Bracket Championship of the CCA Christmas Tournament, CFS beat Trigg County 52-43 to claim third place. They led 25-20 at halftime behind 10 points from Howard, Jayden Jackson with six and Alyssa Warren five.
They took their largest lead of the game of 12 points at 21-9 in the second quarter, but Trigg County finished out the half outscoring the Lady Eagles 11-4 which was the start of a 26-10 run through the end of the third quarter to put them on top 35-31.
Senior Marleigh Reynolds was huge for Trigg County in the run, scoring 16 straight points to give them their largest lead of 10 points in the third quarter.
Howard scored the final three points of the third quarter and opened the fourth with a field goal to cut the Trigg County lead down to two points at 35-33. Jackson scored to tie the game while drawing the foul. Her free throw gave CFS the lead and they held it the rest of the way in the 9-point win.
“We’ve been averaging about 15 points a quarter and we didn’t score until about two minutes to go in the third quarter, and that’s just not our game”, Jackson said. “They made some good adjustments at halftime, and we made some in the fourth quarter and that’s what I told the girls, I’m very proud of how we didn’t let that dictate how the rest of the game was going to go.”
Gracie Howard led with 22 points and 11 rebounds. Lillian Burnett also recorded a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Howard had 89 points over the four games including a big 32-point game against Carlisle County along with 16 rebounds. Burnett finished with 60 points combined in the tournament.
It was the first win for CFS over Trigg County over the history of their 17 games, dating back to Jan. 1999.
The Lady Eagles opened play in the CCA Warrior Christmas Tournament with a win on Friday over Fulton City 58-42. The loss to Carlisle County on Saturday put them in the Silver Bracket where they went on to beat Hickman County 51-50 and Trigg County on Tuesday to win the bracket.
Dresden, Tenn. beat Carlisle County 72-66 in the title game.
CFS 13 12 6 21 – 52
Trigg 7 13 15 8 – 43
CFS: Gracie Howard 22, Lillian Burnett 13, Alyssa Warren 6, Jayden Jackson 6, Renee Shields 3, Rhema Howard 1
Trigg: Marleigh Reynolds 19, Kara Hyde 11, Olivia Noffsinger 9, Landi Rogers 2, Sarah Sink 2
CFS: FG 18/50, 3 PT 0/3, FT 16/29 (G. Howard 6/7), REB 34 (G. Howard 11, Burnett 10)
CCA Warrior Christmas Tournament game stats
Dec. 17 – CFS 58, Fulton City 42
CFS: Lillian Burnett 20, Gracie Howard 13, Jayden Jackson 11, Alyssa Warren 8, Renee Shields 4, Rhema Howard 2
Fulton City: Takyra Taylor 12, Mia Martin 11, Brittany Maclin 6, Lanie Crumble 4, TaJashia Maclin 4, Jasmine McCloyn 3, Braelyn Walker 2
CFS: FG 20/45, 3 PT 1/3 (Jackson), FT 17/23 (Burnett 4/4, Jackson 4/4), REB 36 (G. Howard 9, Jackson 8)
Fulton City: FG 19/24, 3 PT 2/2, FT 2/3, REB 34
Dec. 18 – Carlisle County 71, CFS 62
CFS: Gracie Howard 32, Lillian Burnett 14, Jayden Jackson 7, Alyssa Warren 6, Renee Shields 2, Rhema Howard 1
Carlisle County: Tristen Tyler 19, Kierra Whitaker 15, Maddison Wright 13, Malle McGee 10, Gracyn Edging 8, Alexis Jones 4, Karlie Gibson 2
CFS: FG 26/54, 3 PT 0/2, FT 10/25, REB 36 (G. Howard 16)
Carlisle County: FG 27/66, 3 PT 5/13, FT 12/21, REB 37
Dec. 20 – CFS 51, Hickman County 50
CFS: Gracie Howard 22, Lillian Burnett 13, Alyssa Warren 6, Jayden Jackson 6, Renee Shields 3, Rhema Howard 1
CFS: FG 17/48, 3 PT 2/8 (G. Howard, Jackson), FT 15/22 (Warren 4/5), REB 31 (Burnett 10)
