It wasn’t “A” good night

The short trip over to Glasgow Monday night wasn’t exactly what Clinton County players and fans had hoped for in the match-ups against the Scotties and Lady Scotties for our first round of the All “A” Classic 4th Regional Tournament.

The girls fell behind early and eventually gave up a disappointing 65-36 loss at the hands of a very good Lady Scottie team, led of course by Division I signee (Breanna Glover), who dropped in 27 points against us.

Not making excuses for our Lady Dawgs and this outcome as well as our current 2-20 record, but I’ve been doing this for danged near four decades now, and I’ve seen teams go through a devastating injury – or two – from time to time, but never have I seen a team suffer through a year of injuries like this.

At one point earlier in the season, there were five – count ‘em, five – key players sitting out with serious knee injuries, then we added a concussion suffered by another key player a couple of weeks ago.

Sitting on the sidelines, I can hear the gasps going through the crowd and down the bench every single time a player goes to the floor.

Now, finally, we are slowly beginning to look something similar to our former squad with Kayla Dicken back in action, Bree Boils awaiting the arrival and fitting of a brace and Joelie Hicks having put in a few minutes in a game last week before taking another tumble and doing another “wait and see” evaluation.

It has to be frustrating for the players and the coaches, as well as the parents and fans, to know that if we could put everyone on the floor, we’d be a force to reckon with.

As we start to heal and the second half of the season progresses, I’m expecting the Lady Dawgs and their loyal following to be part of a turnaround.

I know head coach Darrell Thompson, whom I’ve seen close-up with the look of frustration on his face, is keeping a positive attitude about what might be ahead.

“We’ll be a better team because of this,” Thompson told me a few games back.

As for the Bulldogs and their early exit from the All “A” tourney – well, it was painful, but you also have to remember, we’re in the middle of a rebuilding year.

Sometimes that’s hard to remember, but look back at last year’s senior class and the number of year’s that group played together, and you can begin to grasp just how inexperienced this year’s team actually is – although they themselves are a squad with four seniors, albeit inexperienced seniors.

But, despite Monday night’s painful loss that ditched this team’s All “A” hopes, expect this second half (yes – we are past the halfway mark now) of the season to be better. The Dawgs started off 0-3 before they learned how to win, and they are still learning.

Bottom line – the season is far from over for either squad – there’s still plenty of Big Blue fun ahead.

Update II on upcoming Classic game

As I promised last week, here is some better information about ticket availability for the upcoming February 6, two-day long Don Marshall E RAM Classic that will feature several of the top teams from across the country, not to mention several of the nation’s top-rated high school players who we will be watching on the college court in the future, including UK commit Sacha Killeya-Jones (6’ 11”) of Virginia Episcopal School.

Clinton County Athletic Director Mike Beard informs me this week that the games will be divided into sessions, with the first session that includes Clinton County’s game against McCreary Central (12:00 noon local time