FINISHING STRONG: Cardinals overcome slow start, defeat McCreary Central, 52-45
Feb. 26—LONDON — South Laurel was able to get back to its winning ways on Thursday but it wasn't pretty.
The Cardinals were limited to 16 first-half points, including a four-point effort in the second quarter before getting on track in the second half to knock off McCreary Central, 52-45.
"We just had no energy," South Laurel Coach Jeff Davis said. "We just didn't have any fire and came out flat. I credit McCreary because they played hard. We were just very lucky to get a win. That's the only good thing to come out.
"We've got to be better than this," he added. "There aren't many games left to get better. Now is the time you want to be playing better and home things in. You can't come out with the effort that we came out with tonight."
Parker Payne turned in a 25-point scoring effort for the Cardinals during the win while Caden Jones added eight points and Micah Anders finished with six points.
McCreary Central took a 14-12 lead into the second quarter before outscoring the Cardinals, 6-4, in the second quarter while pushing its lead at halftime to 20-16.
Smith and Payne scored two points apiece in the quarter before South Laurel began to heat up in the second half.
Payne scored seven points during the third quarter which included hitting a 3-pointer while Anders knocked down a 3-pointer and added five points to help their team outscore the Raiders 16-9 during the period while taking a 32-29 advantage in the fourth quarter.
Payne and Jones did all of the damage in the final eight minutes for the Cardinals. Payne scored 14 points while Jones added six points to help South Laurel capture a seven-point win.
South Laurel 52, McCreary Central 45
McCreary Central 14 6 9 16 45
South Laurel 12 4 16 20 52
McCreary Central (45) — Conaster 11, Lowdermilk 14, C. McKinney 3, Stephens 16, M. McKinney 1.
South Laurel (52) — Payne 25, Anders 6, Smith 2, England 5, Gover 3, Jones 8, Reed 3.