By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
The Cabot Lady Panthers’ opening game of the Pre-Holiday Classic wasn’t much more than a walk-through. The Lady Panthers had no trouble with McClellan on Tuesday, beating the Lady Crimson Lions 52-13 at Panther Arena.
Cabot’s defense was suffocating. McClellan managed just nine shot attempts the entire first half, and made none of them. The Lady Lions did hit 3 of 5 free-throw attempts in the first half, so it wasn’t a shutout for the home team, but it was a cakewalk. The Lady Panthers didn’t shoot extremely well, hitting 14 of 40 shot attempts, but still took a 33-3 lead into intermission.
McClellan’s turnovers more than doubled its shot attempts in the first half. The Lady Lions turned the ball over 19 times, eight of which were Cabot steals.
The Lady Panthers led 8-1 with 3:08 left in the first quarter when Cabot coach Carla Crowder made her first wholesale substitutions. The bench players closed the period with a 7-0 run before three starters re-entered the game to start the second quarter. That group went on a 14-0 run over the first four minutes of the second quarter that made it 29-1.
McClellan called timeout with 3:39 left in the half. From that point, guard Maddie Nichols was the only Cabot starter to play the rest of the game.
A total of 11 Lady Panthers scored with senior Anna Sullivan leading the way with 11 points. Rachel Allgood came off the bench to finish with a game-high eight rebounds. Cabot outrebounded McClellan 33-14. Chloe Bean and #23 scored six points each for Cabot while Lily Sinclair added five.
The Lady Panthers finished the game 22 of 60 from the floor and 6 of 7 from the foul line. McClellan hit 4 of 27 shot attempts and 4 of 9 free throws. McClellan’s first made field goal came at the 6:40 mark of the third quarter by Brandi Patterson. She made three of the Lady Lions’ four baskets, and finished with a team-high six points. The other McClellan basket was a banked in 3-pointer from the left wing by Jennifer Walker that made the score 44-10 with six minutes left in the game.
