Christian Fellowship’s Lady Eagles season came to an end on Monday in their 4th District Tournament game against Calloway County, falling 95-45. They finish their fifth straight winning season with a record of 16-13.
Gracie Howard scored 30 points in her final game at CFS. Howard finishes her outstanding career with 3,329 points as the new First Region all-time scorer for boys and girls and the 11th all-time scorer in girls’ history. She currently ranks second in the state in scoring with an average of 28.8 points per game.
Eleven different players scored for Calloway County, led by Sayler Lowe with 28. Calloway County will advance to Wednesday’s championship game against the winner of tonight’s Marshall County-Murray game.
Rylee Hudson gave CFS their first three points after a scoring and drawing the foul but a 15-0 run followed by Calloway County to push their lead to 20-3. Five points from Howard and a basket by Jenna Neal finished out the Lady Eagles first quarter scoring and they trailed 34-10.
Howard and Lowe for Calloway County, each put up 11 points in the second quarter but the combination of scoring from seven different players expanded the Lady Lakers lead to 68-21 at halftime.
With both teams running in players off the bench much of the second half, Calloway County went on to outscore CFS 27-24 on their way to finishing out the tournament win.
It was the final game for seniors Gracie Howard and Noelle Tyson who Head Coach Trevor Jackson said have been with him since sixth grade and are two very special young ladies.
“I told Noelle, addressing the team after the game, that she was me as a player”, Jackson said. “I wasn’t the best player on my team, but I stuck it out and took advantage of the minutes I did get and was a leader on and off the court when I did get out there and that’s exactly what Noelle was. She was a great captain this year. She always gave you everything she had when she was out there. Never complained one time how much she did or didn’t play so you have to have utmost respect for somebody that understands their role. She was an ultimate team player. That takes a special individual to do that.”
Jackson used the term Mount Rushmore to describe Howard, telling her she was above Mount Rushmore at the top of the mountain.
“I’ve coached a lot of great kids, going back to my day coaching boys years ago”, Jackson said. “Some of the great girls that I’ve coached that graduated in the last two years…but she’s by far the best. The stats speak for themselves.”
“Scoring always came easy for her and she wanted to win so bad”, Jackson said adding that Howard would have given away every one of her points to have won every game she played in.
“The ultimate compliment I think is, I was talking with some officials after the game and they were saying in all the years they’ve refereed her, not one time has she ever given them a cross look, never said a cross word”, Jackson said. “She just played the game. She is one of a kind.”
CFS 10 11 9 15 – 45
Calloway 34 34 15 12 – 95
CFS: Gracie Howard 30, Jenna Neal 5, Rylee Hudson 3, Kylee Hines 3, Noelle Tyson 2, Ava Ryan 2
Calloway: Lowe 28, Jaidan Koch 19, Jaycee Crouch 12, Madison Futrell 12, Kaillie Franklin 7, Keatyn Tynes 6, Gabriella Yocum 3, Raylee McClure 3, Emma Grooms 2, Olivia Perkins 2, Angie Emery 1
