Lady Pirates hit doldrums, drop two in district play

The Lady Pirates have been steadily improving all season. Just as things were looking promising, the mid-January doldrums hit. And it hit hard.
The Lady Pirates dropped three straight this past week. Two of those losses were district games, so now the young Powell team will have to really push hard to adjust their district seeding and post-season hopes.
Powell traveled to Owsley last Tuesday for the boys/girls varsity doubleheader. The fell hard to the Lady Owls, 66-50. That set up a rematch with Estill County this past Friday in Irvine. Powell had outlasted Estill in Stanton a couple of weeks ago, 52-46. But in the rematch, the comeback fell short. Estill led by as many as 11 in the second half and despite a huge push by Powell that tied the game with a minute to play, the Lady Engineers survived and won 52-48.
Powell led early in the game and held a 17-14 lead after one quarter. But Estill picked up the pace and took advantages of a few Lady Pirates miscues and cold shooting.. The Lady Pirates managed to score only four points in the second frame, as Estill grabbed a 28-21 halftime advantage.
The rest of the game had Powell trying to play catch up. They finally did late in the game, trailing 44-33, Powell went on a scoring run. With 1:26 to play Macey Howell connected on a free throw to tie the game, 48-48. But Estill was able to connect on four charity tosses down the stretch to seal the win, 52-48.
Powell was led by Macey Howell, who played the entire game. Howell scored 24 points, the only Lady Pirate to hit double figures, she also grabbed eight rebounds. Bree Bush also played the entire game and scored eight points, while picking up six assists. Mikyra Caudill tossed in six points, Kansas Stephens chipped in five, Amelia Trent added three and Kenna Neal added two points.
The losses dropped Powell to 3-11 overall and a district record of 2-2. They still have to play Lee and Owsley again, but in Stanton.

JC