DISTRICT CHAMPIONS
Katherine Williams, Sports Writer, SWT - 2/22/2009
SALEM � When the Lady Cougars took the floor for their pre-game warm-up Friday night, there was a sense of readiness, intensity and focus in the way they conducted themselves in their drills. Like they were not just playing for a title, but for something bigger.
Instead of their usual warm-up jerseys each Lady Cougar wore a �Fight Like A King� T-shirt, in honor of former Coach Brenda King who was diagnosed with cancer last October. This game obviously meant more to the girls than just the finals.
Ready, focused and intense they were as they defeated the Blacksburg Bruins 53-39 to capture the River Ridge District Tournament title.
�We had a great run,� first-year Lady Cougar Head Coach Jason Grubb said.
�We came in confident and we knew what Blacksburg would do against us. We were able to stop them on defense with our man-to-man. Just overall the girls played really well,� Grubb added smiling and holding his team�s well-deserved trophy.
Winning the crown was the culmination of the �Cinderella� story as the Lady Cougars were seeded last at No. 5 going into the tournament and were supposed to go home games ago.
Their 49-48 win over the home-standing Salem Spartans Monday bought them a semifinal game against the No. 1 seeded Hidden Valley Titans. The Lady Cougars surprised everyone by pulling out a 54-52 victory over the Titans and River Ridge Coach of the Year, Randy Bush.
The Lady Cougars then had the chance to become tourney champions if they could get by No. 3 seeded Blacksburg who had already defeated the Lady Cougars twice in the regular season.
On top of a 12-6 lead going into the second quarter, the Lady Cougars then went on an 11-4 run at the top of the quarter putting the Bruins (17-7) down 23-10 with 1:40 left in the half. The teams traded buckets, but a buzzer beater lay-up from senior Emma Reigert extended the Cougar lead to 27-15 going into the half-time chat.
Free throws were a problem for the Cougars as they were 4-of-10 for the half, while the Bruins were 4-of-6 at the �gimme line.�
Hannah Davidson had 11 points at the conclusion of the half, nine of them as the result of connecting on three shots from behind the arc.
In the third quarter the Lady Cougars (14-11) maintained their big lead holding the Bruins to only seven points, but scoring 13 of their own to take a 40-22 lead into the fourth quarter.
The two teams exchanged buckets throughout the final quarter, but the Bruins couldn�t get the margin any lower than 12 points before the Cougars would score again, leaving the Bruins behind 14 points as the horn sounded.
The Lady Cougars� title this season completes a journey to the top of the River Ridge District that last season saw them fall just short as runners-up.
Three Lady Cougars landed spots on the All-Tournament Team.
First Team All-District honors went to Raiven Patterson, while Hannah Davidson was named Second Team All-District. Daisy Ball was named to the Honorable Mention list for the Lady Cougars.
As Bush received his Coach of the Year award, the public address announcer said, �Randy Bush would like to accept this award on behalf of himself, his team and on the behalf of Coach Brenda King, the Hidden Valley Head Coach and former Lady Cougar Head Coach. What better way to finish the district season than to have the Lady Titans as the regular season champions and the Lady Cougars as the district tournament champions. Congratulations to both teams.�
The crowd rose to their feet in honor of the beloved Coach King as the words were spoken.
The Cougars were led by Davidson with her career high 17 points, 15 of them off three-point buckets. Patterson had 13 points.
The Cougars now advance to the Region IV tournament next week. There will be a meeting today in Wytheville to decide the seeds, location of the tournament and the game times as some district tournaments concluded just yesterday.
Pulaski (53)
Holcomb 3 1-3 7, Patterson 5-3-5 13, Davidson 6 0-0 17, A. Long 0 0-2 0, Ball 1 3-4 5, Reigert 2 0-2 4, Samuelson 3 1-2 7, Thacker 0 0-1 0. Totals 20 8-19 53.

Blacksburg (39)
Henderson 1 0-0 2, McMahan 1 3-4 5, Priest 1 1-2 3, Jones 3 6-7 12, Kipps 1 4-9 6, Burkes 4 2-2 11. Totals 11 16-24 39.

3-Point Goals: Pulaski County 5 (Davidson 5), Blacksburg (Burkes).

Total fouls: Pulaski County 21, Blacksburg 19.
Fouled out: Pulaski County none, Blacksburg McMahan.
Technical fouls none.