Mason County’s Amirah Reed works her way down the court against the Bracken County Polar Bears on Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025.
The Mason County Lady Royals hosted the Bracken County Lady Bears in their second meeting of the 2024-25 season.
In the first game of a boy/ girl doubleheader, the Lady Royals and Lady Bears took the floor of the Fieldhouse to play their second of two 39th district seed contests. In their first meeting of the year, Mason County came out ahead of the reigning 39th district champions 57-47 at Bracken County’s home gym. This go around, the Lady Royals were hoping to once again pull out a victory over the Lady Bears, and secure the number one seed.
Bracken County got off to a strong start early in the contest, with Nicole Archibald putting up six, and both Jenna Colvin and Brianna Bauer two apiece to total ten points by the end of the first quarter.
Despite picking up an early lead, the Lady Bears would fall behind by the end of the first eight minutes of play, with the Lady Royals outscoring Bracken County 15-10. In the first, Amirah Reed had six, Olivia Hughes five, and both Adrienne Downs-Perry and Lexi Young two, to round out Mason County’s scoring in this quarter.
“We definitely got off to a good early start. We tried to switch some things up defensively, slow them down a little bit.” said Lady Royals head coach, Jay Fite.
Heading into the second quarter, Mason County was looking to hold onto their five point lead over the Lady Bears, while Bracken County hoped to pull out ahead as the first half came to a close.
The Lady Royals defense successfully held off Bracken County’s strong offense in the second quarter, holding the Lady Bears to six. This quarter, Mason County outscored the Lady Bears 11-6, with a trio of threes from Hughes, Kyliegh Kirk and Carlee Buttery totalling nine, and two more from Reed to close out the scoring this quarter.
“When she gets it going, she really has it. We definitely want her to be confident, we definitely want her looking for open opportunities. We try to find some little seams in our offense for her to get to the rim, and we like her taking the three ball as well.” said coach Fite, “Tonight, she did it from the perimeter and she got to the seams as well. We finally got a few things going in transition, when she’s going it kinda opens things up for others as well.”
Mason County led 26-16 heading into halftime, a ten point lead the Lady Royals hoped to hold onto throughout the remainder of the contest.
Bracken County, however, refused to quit and began going to work offensively to try and close the point deficit. This quarter, the Lady Bears outscored Mason County 16-12, bringing the game close multiple times throughout the third quarter. The Lady Bears unfortunately though were unable to get out ahead of the Lady Royals, and headed into the final eight minutes of the contest down six, Mason County leading 38-32.
“That third quarter they started to knock some shots down, against our zone. We tried to adjust back, they got it back to three, I think we got it back to a little comfortable lead. We didn’t handle it super well in our late game situation, but we made some big shots, Amirah made some threes, helped extend the lead.” said coach Fite.
Throughout the fourth, Bracken County continued to fight to try to bring the game out in their favor, but the Lady Royals were just as hungry for the win. Both teams’ offenses went to work this quarter, looking to put up big numbers for their team. By the time the quarter came to a close, both Mason County and Bracken County had scored 23, allowing the Lady Royals to come away with a six point lead, winning 61-55.
“We had kinda zoned up for a little bit, and obviously we had to start finding their shooters again, so we kinda matched back up man to man. We know they’re good at penetrating and they’ve got enough shooters to make you stay wide. Bauer’s a presence on the inside, they shoot free throws well, they’re just kinda dangerous on different levels. Bracken’s a good basketball team, they’ve been in it with the region’s best all year, we’re fortunate to get away with a win.” said coach Fite.
Now 5-0 in the district, Mason County has clinched the number one seed, with just one more district game left on the schedule, a contest against the Augusta Lady Panthers this coming Wednesday.
“I believe that puts us at the number one, that broke any tie breaker with them we would’ve had. That was a good one for us to have. When you seed the district, those are big. Moving forward, we’ve gotta continue to work on some late game situations, and taking care of the basketball down the stretch, but all in all it was good that we had a comfortable lead before we got to that point.” said coach Fite.
LADY BEARS 10-6-16-23 – 55
LADY ROYALS 15-11-12-23 – 61
BRACKEN COUNTY (Archibald 16, Colvin 2, Sharp 18, Kelsch 6, Bauer 13)
MASON COUNTY (Reed 25, Kirk 3, Highes 13, Downs-Perry 11, Young 6, Buttery 3)
Field Goals: Bracken 10, Mason 9
3-Pointers: Bracken 7, Mason 11
Free Throws: Bracken 14/18, Mason 10/12
Records: Bracken County 9-6, Mason County 13-5
