By AARON SNYDER / The Independent
ASHLAND — Kristin Perry made certain West Carter was going to pull off the upset.
To the tune of 30 points, 18 rebounds and seven blocks, Perry put together a dominating performance as the Lady Comets defeated Ashland 54-46 at Ashland’s James A. Anderson Gymnasium Monday night.
Perry may have summed up her play best.
“I try to be an everywhere player,” Perry said. “I try to be wherever my team needs me to be, and that just happened to be everywhere tonight.”
The junior forward did it all, from sealing off Kittens in the lane and swatting shot attempts to drawing key fouls and hitting long-range jumpers.
“Everything went through (Perry) tonight,” said Ashland coach Bill Bradley. “Every set, every play.”
Perry’s memorable game, including a career-high total in both points and rebounds, came against one of the best post players in the 16th Region for much of the game.
Ashland senior Katelyn Connor scored 11 points and grabbed six rebounds, but she struggled with the presence of Perry and encountered foul trouble.
Connor committed her fourth personal foul midway through the third quarter, just after she dropped in five points and was seemingly finding her groove in the paint.
West Carter’s game plan undoubtedly surrounded the 6-foot-2 center.
“Connor is a great player,” said West Carter coach Tex English. “That’s what our game plan was — take it right to her. We knew she’d try to block shots.”
Instead of setting up in the middle, Perry camped out on the perimeter for a couple possessions with Connor out, and she converted. The second of her two 3-pointers knotted the game at 38-38 to kick off the fourth quarter. Perry tallied 13 points in the final period, including 6-for-8 from the foul line.
Connor returned to the game with four fouls with 6:53 remaining, but fouled out at the 3:54 mark. Perry sank both free throws to put West Carter (12-7) in front 44-40.
Ashland (14-5) tried desperately to rally, but baskets were hard to come by all game long. Kittens freshman Kaylyn Gambill, the region’s top 3-point shooter, went cold, and point guard Chelsea Dietrich was swarmed by West Carter’s matchup zone defense on every driving attempt. Dietrich and Gambill combined to shoot 1-for-25 from the floor.
The only Kittens to have any luck dropping in buckets, aside from Connor, were Mykal Farris, who scored 11 points on 5-of-9 shooting and Amy Hanners, who went 5-for-8 and recorded a team-high 13 points.
Bradley thought the Kittens had enough good looks at the basket to win the game, but he was more frustrated with his team’s defense than anything else.
“We had a total collapse several times on defense,” Bradley said. “(West Carter) stayed with us for a while and they got hungrier and hungrier. We got back on our heels instead of coming out and fighting more.”
Ashland took the lead several times throughout the first three quarters, but never took control. The momentum looked like it would swing in Ashland’s favor when Connor made a tough fall-away basket and drew a foul in the second quarter, putting the Kittens ahead 24-20.
The Lady Comets answered right back, with back-to-back baskets by Perry and teammate Lena Reynolds, who scored 12 points.
“We wanted to come in here and just beat them,” Perry said. “This is always a hard game to win — any game against Ashland on their home floor. This means we can beat anybody in the region.”
AARON SNYDER can be reached at asnyder@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2664.
