Throughout the course of the 2016-2017 season, the West Carter Lady Comets have prided themselves on playing hard over all four quarters of a basketball contest.

So when Aaron Rayburn noticed that attention to detail slipping near the end of the second quarter, he challenged them to regain that focus.

The result? Two blistering runs a 14-0 blitz in the third quarter and an 8-1 spark in the fourth quarter to help lead the Lady Comets to a 64-44 victory over the Lady Rams Wednesday evening in Raceland.

For Rayburn, the second half performance was exactly how he wanted to see his unit responded to the adversity that faced them in the first half of play.

We were a little disappointed with how we ended the second quarter, Rayburn said. We let up in some areas and and made some bad decisions with the basketball. To the girls' credit, they came out in the second half and started to move the basketball really well. It was really fun to see the girls shine in a litany of different areas. That was good. I'm very proud of the girls tonight after this one.

Intially, West Carter looked like it was going to be able to pull away for an easy victory early on as a 7-0 run to start the contest, and an 11-2 spurt between the first and second quarters, had the Lady Comets out to an 23-9 advantage early on in the second quarter of play.

However, Raceland showed some grit of its own.

Behind baskets from Lauren Runyon, Adrianna Flocker, Chloe Collins, and Morgan Curley, the Rams shot out to a 13-3 run that cut the lead down to a 28-24 margin with 34 seconds left in the first half of play.

The heady trio of Stone, Ragan Adkins, and Hannah Bear, however, had other ideas.

Behind Bear's half-ending bucket, the trio and the Lady Comets, as a whole, got on a roll on both ends of the floor.

To start off the second half, there were mid-range jumpers by Stone, Burchett, and Adkins, who supplied two of her own.

By the time Bear added an and-one and Adkins accounted for her final points in the frame with her third three-pointer of the contest, West Carter had jetted out to a 16-0 run including a 14-0 spurt over the first 2:31 of the third quarter to head out to a 44-24 advantage.

In fact, the Lady Comets didn't allow a field goal over the first 5:49 of the frame en route to building its lead to as much as 24 in the quarter.

We had a couple of good things happen tonight, Rayburn said. Ragan Adkins has had a few rough games where it seems like the lid was on her basket, but she's stayed the course. To see her hitting tonight was great. (Allie) Stone was hitting tonight, Hannah (Bear) was just dishing it left and right, and Chyann Zeigler was just crashing those boards left and right. It was good to see all those things that we've been working on and all of those things that we've been trying to do get taken care of tonight.

In the fourth quarter of play, West Carter continued its tear by going on an 8-1 run to push its lead to as much as a 61-35 margin. The Lady Comets emptied their bench following this run, and cruised home to a 64-44 victory for their 17th win of the year.

During the contest, West Carter also showed off some of the younger members on its bench. Kylie Gilliam showed off her impressive ballhandling skills while bringing the ball up as a point forward, while Kara Jordan used her length to create problems for Raceland's bigs in the low post.

It's been 10 games since Maddie (Hanshaw) went out with her ACL tear, Rayburn said. The biggest thing, for me, is to put more trust and patience in Kylie and Kara. They're just eighth-graders, and we're asking them to do big things. Tonight, both of them were great. There's definitely stuff that we can work on and things that we see that we need to get better at, but tonight, they did great coming off of the bench.

Kara's just so tall, and when she gets those arms up, she can really deflect some shots. As for KG, she's got a really good game; it's just a matter of learning how to play to her strengths and play within herself.

With the win, West Carter improved to 17-12 on the year. The Lady Comets tied their decade-high in wins with their 18th tally in a 60-43 victory over Greenup County and will play Morgan County Monday evening at 7:30 p.m. at East Carter High School in an attempt to obtain their fourth consecutive win, their 19th victory of the year, and a berth to the regional tournament.

West Carter 18 12 23 11 64

Raceland 9 15 10 10 44

West Carter Adkins 7-0-17, Bear 4-3-11, Burchett 3-0-6, Gilliam 2-2-6, Haynes 0-1-1, Nichols 1-0-2, Stone 7-1-17, Ziegler 2-0-4, Totals 26-7-64.

Raceland Adkins 2-0-4, Boyd 0-3-3, Collins 3-3-11, Curley 2-1-5, Flocker 1-1-4, Garvin 1-1-3, Maynard 1-0-2, Runyon 4-2-10, S. West 1-0-2, Totals 15-11-44.

3-Point Goals West Carter 5 (Adkins 3, Stone 2); Raceland 3 (Collins 2, Flocker).

Records West Carter 17-12, Raceland 5-20.

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Strong second half leads Lady Comets to 64-44 victory - Journal-Times