By Thomas Sellers Jr.
The Brighton Lady Cardinals were flying high entering their rivalry showdown with Tipton County foe the Covington Lady Chargers. As the Dec. 11 showdown was minutes away from tipoff in the Brighton Gymnasium, the Lady Cardinals were owners of an 8-0 record blowing out several opponents. Head Coach David Wampler tried to create a sense of urgency in his players. But after jumping ahead 12-2 in the first quarter over Covington, the Lady Cardinals started to unravel. The Lady Chargers erased a 16-7 first quarter deficit and took advantage of three Brighton technical fouls to end the Brighton win streak with a 54-52 decision. “As bad as we played, we had every opportunity to win,” Wampler said. “I think the officiating was the best I’ve ever seen. When a team has three techs and nobody has said a word, they called a tech on the bench because somebody in the stands yelled.” Ahead by 9 points entering the second quarter, the Lady Cardinals got a bucket from Sylvia “Bug” Jones to make the score 18-7. Then Covington proceeded with a 15-1 run to take the lead at 22-19. When Brighton was nursing a 19-18 advantage, the first technical foul was called on the Lady Cardinals courtesy of the bench. The official hard some criticism from the direction of the Brighton bench leading to the call. The Lady Chargers converted one of the free throws to deadlock the game at 19-19. Moments later the contest was tied at 23-23 after a Cor’Tayza Flowers basket. Once again Covington benefited from another technical foul call to break the tie. Lady Cardinal Albanie Dunn was whistled for the infraction after displaying some emotion at mid court after a foul. The Lady Chargers made both technical foul shots to regain the lead. Covington was ahead 26-25 at the break. The third quarter was a slugfest with the teams trading blows. With the score 32-32, Lady Charger Ali Gover hit a three-pointer to give Covington momentum. Brighton had the answer when MG Smith scored a bucket in the post. Dunn recaptured the lead for Brighton with a basket to make the tally 36-35. After Covington went ahead 37-36, Dunn had the reply again with a three-pointer. Then another technical would doom Brighton. Smith missed out on a rebound and fouled a Lady Charger. The whistle blew and the senior forward said “Why?” That was enough to get the tech. Covington made 3 of 4 foul shots to go ahead 40-39. Brighton would capture the lead three more times down the stretch including a 49-46 advantage in the fourth quarter. Gover struck again with a timely basket to make the score 50-49 in favor of the Lady Chargers. T. Brown gave her Lady Cardinals the lead for the final time with a pair of foul shots. Covington would outscored Brighton 4-1 down the stretch to prevail and end Brighton’s unblemished record. “They got double fouls,” Wampler noted. “So they had six foul shots for the common fouls. Then six foul shots for the technicals, so that’s 12 shots. Then they had four extra possessions and beat us by two.” All of Brighton’s starters had two fouls in the first half. The Lady Cardinals had 12 fouls compared to Covington’s 5 in the first 16 minutes. “Officiating doesn’t beat you,” Wampler noted. “It didn’t help tonight. I think the officiating got to my girls.” Wampler said the key factors in the first defeat of the 2018-19 season was not making free throws, not running called plays and panic during some possessions. “We’ve had a different leading scorer for 8 games,” he said. “We moved the ball. I think right now we were down to 58 percent of all our shots being assisted. I bet we didn’t even get 20 percent tonight. We have to get back to that.” Frustrated by the way his team loss its first game, Wampler said the Covington game will benefit his crew.
“We had every opportunity but didn’t take advantage of any of them,” he concluded. “Maybe it was a good thing because it was a big rivalry game. It will bring us back down to earth.”
