The young Craig County girls will have their work cut out for them when they visit Elliston Friday to take on host Eastern Montgomery in a Pioneer District basketball game. The Mustangs are the second ranked team in Region 1C and 15-2 overall.
Craig County comes into the week at 1-11 and they’re still looking for their first district win after dropping two games last week. On Tuesday at home they fell to Parry McCluer, 60-29. The Blues improved to 13-2 with the win.
“Our youth continues to hurt us on the offensive end,” said coach Brock Jones. “We got off to a slow start.”
Parry McCluer led 20-4 after the first quarter and 37-9 at the half. Annabelle Gregory led the Rockets with 13 points and six steals while Kallie and Kammie Fisher had four points each. Anna Claytor, Parry McCluer’s 6’1” center, was high for the game with 24 points.
“She’s a bad matchup for us,” said Jones. “She’s a tough matchup for anyone in our region and probably makes a strong case for Pioneer District Player of the Year this year.”
On Friday the Rockets dropped a 50-37 decision in Covington. The Rockets lost it at the foul line, hitting just eight of 18 while the Cougars nailed 16 of their 24 free throw attempts.
“A team I think we should have beaten,” said Jones. “We missed over 11 fast break layups during this game. Offensively we have struggled all season, but we usually do a fair job at open layups, but luck just wasn’t for us today. We shot 17 percent from the field.”
Gregory led Craig with 11 points and nine steals. Kallie Fisher added seven points, three assists, five rebounds and four steals while Kammie Fisher scored eight points and had 13 rebounds. Hannah Ratliff added six points, six rebounds, seven steals and two assists and sophomore Brooklyn Cayton, pulled up from the jayvee team, added five points and eight rebounds.
“We are such a young team, and these things should work themselves out as we move forward in the years to come,” said Jones. “ All the off season workouts and camps to get the fundamentals down will be our key. The group of girls from eighth through 10th grade are a group of workers and I’m excited for the future of this team. If the group pans out as is and no one else decides to come out for basketball next year we will have one freshman, Kailyn Jones, and one senior, Ashely Cayton, for next year. Really young and that’s what we need for rebuilding. This off season will be loaded with camps and gym time for us.”
The Rocket jayvees were scheduled to host Bath County on Tuesday of this week and it was “jayvee only” as the Chargers do not have a varsity team this winter. Friday will be jayvee and varsity at East Mont and Saturday the Rockets are home at 2 pm for a varsity only game with Alleghany. Next Monday, January 30, the girls are at Giles.
