LONDON — South Laurel’s had a chance to make some noise with a win over No. 4 ranked Pikeville, but the Lady Panthers had other things in mind.
Pikeville was coming off a disappointing loss to Corbin just the night before, and managed to pull off a 71-60 despite not having the services of leading scorer Trinity Rowe, who set out due to an injury.
South Laurel (17-10) fell behind, 25-13, in the first quarter before cutting its deficit to only four points in the second quarter.
It did t take Pikeville long to build its lead to double digits again. The Lady Panthers led 41-27 at halftime, and 58-37 entering the fourth quarter.
“Well, I was kind of disappointed today,” South Laurel coach Chris Souder said. “I just didn’t feel like we met the effort and intensity we would need to play a team like Pikeville. We got it down to four in second quarter but just didn’t fight like we needed to. Skeeter (Mabe) had a nice game but it has to be all hands on deck versus high level teams — still not there yet.”
Skeeter Mabe led all scorers with 26 points while Maci Messer added 16 points and Shelbie Mills finishing with 14 points.
