The Bell County girls basketball team entered a war of attrition on Tuesday when they hosted Knox Central for the Southeastern Kentucky Conference Panorama. With fouls being called seemingly every other second, neither team could really get into a rhythm.

In the end, the Lady Cats used strong defense down the stretch to earn the 56-51 victory over the Lady Panthers.

“I thought we tried to play hard at times, and I thought we tried to do some things that we’ve worked in practice. I thought that we done a pretty decent job rebounding the basketball for the most part,” said Bell County coach David Teague. “The main thing that we have to get better at on the defensive side of the basketball is just way too many fouls. It’s just reaching, not adjusting to the way the officials are calling the ball game. We’ve got to do a better job at getting better defensively.”

As the night went on, both teams began racking up fouls. Bell County had a total of 44 free-throw attempts while Knox Central shot 39. The Lady Panthers won the free throw battle hitting 77 percent of their foul shots while the Lady Cats shot 68 percent from the foul line.

Brittany Davis led Bell County in scoring finishing with a team-high 17 points while shooting 80 percent from the free-throw line. Abby Harris and Karlee Cox both ended the night with 11 points.

Defensively, Bell County’s press forced several turnovers that helped the team pull away in the fourth.

Presley Partin paced the Lady Panthers with 17 points. Emily Davis finished the game with nine points, while Maddy Taylor and Morgan Warren tallied eight points apiece.

Bell County jumped out to a 14-10 lead at the end of the first following a layup by Davis.

Knox Central battled back in the second quarter taking a 15-14 lead after an and-1 by Partin and a pair of free throws by Warren. The lead didn’t last long after Brea Browning scored on a layup to return the lead to the Lady Cats.

A 7-1 run midway through the quarter gave Bell a 23-15 lead before Knox battled back to cut the lead to 25-24 with 1:01 remaining in the half. Free throws from Taylor gave the Lady Panthers a 26-25 lead with 40 seconds remaining.

The two teams swapped free throws with second remaining to allow Knox Central to take a 28-27 lead into halftime.

Bell began separating themselves from the Lady Panthers in the third quarter outscoring their opponents 15-9. Both teams tallied 14 points in the fourth as the Lady Cats claimed a five-point victory.

Up Next

Bell County opens the year at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 28 when they host Oneida Baptist Institute.

Knox Central kicks the season off on Nov. 28 with a home game against Middlesboro.

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Bell County (56): Brittany Davis 17, Lindsay Bryant 2, Brittney Cupp 5, Abby Harris 11, Karlee Cox 11, Brea Browning 3, Abigail Cornett 5, MaKenzie Griffin 2.

Knox Central (51): Emily Davis 9, Maddy Taylor 8, Ryleigh Swafford 7, Morgan Warren 8, Presley Partin 17, Zoey Liford 2.

Reach Anthony Cloud at 606-302-9090 or on Twitter @AnthonyCloudMDN