After suffering a loss in the semi-final round of last week’s All ‘A’ Classic 4th Regional Tournament, the Clinton County Lady Bulldogs spent little time in getting their game back on track.
Playing host to the Lady Tigers of Barbourville Saturday night, the Lady Bulldogs quickly jumped out ahead of the 13th Region opponent, eventually rolling out to claim a 69-38 win.
The Clinton County win set the Lady Dawgs’ record at 7-9 going into this week’s games, while Barbourville fell to 4-5 with the loss.
The Lady Bulldogs never trailed against the Lady Tigers, grabbing the first basket on a spin move underneath by Lady Dawg Crista Thacker for the 2-0 lead, with Sophie Matthews and Abby Davis following with baskets to move Clinton County out to a 5-2 lead early in the contest.
Additional first quarter scoring for Clinton County saw Thacker, Matthews, Sadie Ipock, Chloe Longwell, Gracie Griffin and Bella Young all connecting in the first quarter as the Lady Dawgs controlled a 25-9 advantage going into the second quarter.
Ipock got the Lady Dawgs’ second quarter scoring started from the free throw line, and from there, Clinton County never looked back, putting together a 20-3 eight minute run with Thacker, Young, and Davis contributing, as well as an under the basket field goal from Easton Thacker, who came off the bench to help move the Lady Dawgs out to a 45-12 halftime advantage.
Clinton County toyed several times during the second half with sending the game into the “running clock” mode, but was never able to get past a 34 point lead, with the Lady Tigers always managing to grab a score before the game reached that 35 point mark.
Barbourville’s best quarter of the night came during the third period of play, out scoring the Lady Dawgs 12-8 to cut the lead to 29 points at the end of the third quarter.
Clinton County was content to keep the game at status quo during the final eight minutes of play, with additional scoring coming from Davis, Matthews, Young, Griffin and Crista Thacker, the latter including one end-to-end run resulting in a layup with 4:42 showing on the game clock.
Individual scoring for Clinton County was:
C. Thacker    19
Young    16
Davis    9
Griffin    9
Matthews    7
Ipock    5
Longwell    2
E. Thacker    2

Lady Dawgs bow out of All ‘A’ after 69-48 loss to Monroe in semis
A strong first half performance by the Clinton County Lady Bulldogs in the semi-final round of the 4th Region All ‘A’ Classic gave the players, coaches and fans high hopes of advancing into the championship round last week.
Opponent Monroe County came out with a second-half performance that ended those hopes for the Lady Dawgs with the Lady Falcons out-scoring Clinton County 44-23 en route to the 69-48 Monroe victory.
Monroe County went on to dispatch the Metcalfe County Lady Hornets Friday night in Edmonton, advancing the Lady Falcons to next week’s All ‘A’ Classic State Tournament as the 4th Region representative in the 16 team field.
Clinton County came out strong against the Falcons in the semi-final game, with early scoring from Sadie Ipock and Crista Thacker in the first quarter to trail the Lady Falcons by only three points going into the second period of play, 11-8.
The second quarter of action saw the Lady Dawgs with the scoring advantage overall.
A three point basket by Thacker at the 5:27 mark gave Clinton County its first lead of the night, 17-16, and a following basket by Chloe Longwell extended that lead to three points, 19-16.
The Lady Falcons put together a 9-0 run lead midway through the quarter to take a 25-19 lead, but Clinton County’s own six point run on scoring from Abby Davis and Longwell sent the teams to the dressing rooms at halftime deadlocked at 25-25.
It was the Lady Falcons’ strong third quarter performance that ended up being the real nail in the coffin for Clinton County.
Monroe came out strong to get the second half underway, and within the first five minutes, Clinton County found iutself facing its first double digit deficit, 40-30, with the Lady Falcons going on to finish with another run to head into the final quarter in control of an  18 point margin, 51-33.
Clinton County never  backed down and fell just short of holding their own against Monroe in the fourth and final quarter of action, losing the scoring battle by only three points, 18-15.
Four Lady Dawgs figured in the scoring during the fourth quarter of action, with Longwell, Thacker, Sophie Matthews and Gracie Griffin combining scoring down the stretch.
Still, it was short of being able to overcome that third quarter slump for the Lady Dawgs with Monroe claiming the 21 point win, 69-48.
Individual scoring for Clinton County was:
Thacker    18
Longwell    12
Matthews    7
Ipock    4
Davis    4
Griffin    3

Clinton County Lady Bulldog Chloe Longwell went up for this shot last Wednesday against Monroe County’s Tahlia Shefffield during the All ‘A” Classic 4th Region Tournament at Cumberland County.  Longwell finished the game with 12 points, but the Lady Dawgs lost the game to the Lady Falcons, 69-48.  Monroe County won the 4th Region Championship title, defeating Metcalfe County 56-47 in the title game.