Lady Cougars win district title in OT

Five overtime points from Kendra Deal helped Copper Basin’s Lady Cougars bring home the District Championship Saturday night with a 52-46 victory over Sale Creek’s Lady Panthers.

Deal was the night’s scoring leader for Copper Basin with 14 points followed closely by Alexis Hyatt with 12.

The back-and-forth contest began as would be expected in a title match up. But with Sale Creek having the home court advantage, Copper Basin still came out on top 9-8 at the end of the first eight minutes of play. Hyatt’s three points led Basin as the game got underway.

Sale Creek bounced back in the second quarter with a 10-7 advantage to go into halftime leading 18-16. Zoe Green’s four points from the foul line combined with three from Kloie Ballew for the total Basin output.

Hyatt tossed in seven third quarter points to help Copper Basin pull away to a slim 33-31 lead at the end of the quarter. Cora Kimsey stepped up to score four points as the Lady Cougars tallied 17 total to Sale Creek’s 13.

Sale Creek took advantage of nine free throws in the final eight minutes, outscoring Basin 11-9 to tie the game at 42-42 when regulation play ended.

The tables turned in overtime and Basin scored eight of ten points from the charity stripe, all Deal’s five, plus three from Kloie Ballew. Cora Kimsey added a field goal. Meanwhile, the hosts scored only four points.

Following the scoring pace set by Deal and Alexis Hyatt, Ballew and Kimsey both had eight points, Green added six,  and Riley Akens and Addison Hyatt had two points each.

The win guaranteed  the Lady Cougars a spot in the region tournament.