North Laurel took a step into the right direction in its pursuit of a sixth consecutive 49th District championship.
The Lady Jaguars’ rolled to Thursday’s 49th District title game with 14 players scoring during their 62-24 victory over Oneida Baptist.
The win extended the Lady Jaguars’ win streak to 40 consecutive games against 49th District opponents while also running their win streak to 11 straight district tournament wins.
North Laurel (25-6) wasted little time jumping out on the Lady Mountaineers (3-22).
The Lady Jaguars built a 21-5 lead in the first quarter, and a 39-11 cushion by halftime, and never looked back.
“What you play for all year is to make it to region and that’s what our team earned tonight,” North Laurel coach Eddie Mahan said. “It also was a good opportunity for our younger players to get some postseason experience.
“Six of the seven leaders in minutes played were middle schoolers,” he said. “That’s experience that they we will be able to build on for the future. The biggest negative to games like this is if you aren’t careful it can lead to bad habits that can get you beat.”
Mariella Claybrook, Bella Mahan, and Jaelyn Black each led North Laurel with 10 points apiece. Gracie McKnight hit three 3-pointers and finished with nine points.
“We had multiple players do well tonight but I thought Gracie McKnight, Jaelyn Black, Mariella Claybrook and Bella Mahan all did exceptionally well during their minutes played,” Mahan said.
Bailey Bayes led Oneida Baptist with nine points.
The Lady Jaguars will play the winner of Jackson County and Clay County in Thursday’s night title game at 7 p.m.
