Published: January 26, 2008 11:05 pm            

Lady Kats take share of crown

Win at Anderson creates 3-way tie for NCC championship

ANDERSON — The Kokomo girls basketball team seemed out of the North Central Conference race at the holiday break. The Lady Kats stood two games out of the lead after splitting their first four league games.

Kokomo made a complete comeback from that slow start on Saturday.

Kokomo beat Anderson 64-57 to claim a share of the NCC championship. Kokomo, Anderson and Logansport all ended with 5-2 records.

“I am so proud of the girls and the way that they fought throughout the season. They continue to get better and that really came to a head [Saturday] at Anderson,” Kokomo coach Jason Snyder said. “We had two difficult conference losses in one week in December, but the girls stuck together and continued to play hard and continued to work to get better as a team.

“We’ve been able to play fairly well here after the Christmas break because of those things, and we had the opportunity to still get a share of this title. I am extremely proud of them.”

Kayla Drake sparked the Lady Kats on Saturday. The 5-foot-6 senior guard scored a career-high 34 points. She hit 10 of 17 field goals, including 4 of 6 from 3-point range, and she made 10 of 12 free throws.

In addition, her defensive pressure during the third quarter gave Anderson fits.

“Kayla turned it up to another level,” Snyder said. “She shot the ball and caused a lot of havoc defensively with our press. She picked up the tempo for our team. She was a solid leader and we were able to follow her.”

Anderson led 26-21 at halftime, but Kokomo trailed by just one, 34-33, to open the final quarter. When the Kats got the lead and the ball, they spread out the floor, got fouled, went to the line and cashed in.

“There in the fourth quarter, I think we were 16 of 18 from the line including 7 of 8 in the last two minutes,” Snyder said. “We were able to spread the floor. We have three senior guards [Drake, Kelcey Ackison and Shakeeta Cotton] who were able to handle the ball and they were able to finish with free throws.”

Cotton hit 8 of 10 free throws and Ackison connected on her only attempt.

Kokomo finished 25 of 31 from the line while Anderson went 20 of 33. Kokomo also took better care of the ball, finishing with 11 turnovers while Anderson committed 18.

LaKeisha Noethtich led Anderson with 17 points. Bryesha McCullough followed with 15. Nellie Eskew scored seven points and pulled down a whopping 20 rebounds.

The Anderson Herald-Bulletin contributed to this report.

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.