Published: December 21, 2008 01:42 am      

Central overcomes slow start, tops Barren County

BEREA — Frustrated and disappointed by the effort his team displayed in the opening minutes Saturday against Barren County, Madison County coach Robert Cooksey called a timeout.

And whatever the first-year coach said, it certainly made an immediate impact.

“Sometimes you’ve just got to set the tone,” Cooksey said. “Just basically wake them up and let them know it’s time to play.”

After Barren County (4-3) jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead, the Lady Indians responded with a 15-5 run and never trailed again. Central went on to pick up a 53-41 win in the second round of the 15th-annual Lady Pirate Classic at the Seabury Center.

Jenna Cornelison had a game-high 15 points and Brislyn Sizemore added 11 points and eight rebounds as the Lady Indians (3-3) set up a semifinal showdown with Dunbar today (2 p.m.) in Berea.

“We had some kids step up,” Cooksey said. “We’ve got some kids who can come in and play. We are not overly athletic, but we’ve got some kids who can play. And when we really try, we can play some defense.”

The Lady Indians got 18 points off their bench, but it was once again defense that led them to victory.

After limiting East Jessamine to 39 percent shooting Friday in the tournament opener, Central forced 20 turnovers and allowed just 12 field goals. Barren County shot only 30.8 percent and was four-of-16 from three-point range.

The Lady Indians also had 23 points off turnovers.

“We had about a week off and we really worked on transition defense and defense in the half court, because after playing Scott County and Seven Hills, that was an area we decided we needed to focus on for us to be successful,” Cooksey said. “The girls responded. They played well.”

Cornelison had 11 points in the first half as Central went into the break with a five-point lead (27-22). Briana Johnson added a spark off the bench in the second half, scoring all six of her points.

Sizemore had eight rebounds, while Kayla Sharp added seven points, Lyndsay Jones had five points, Erika Parks had three points and Christina Ciolek, Ashton Feldhuas and Kaity Busch had two points each.

Dunbar (7-0) has not lost yet this season and has picked up two double-digit wins in the tournament — 91-31 over Model and 64-52 against Bullitt East. The Lady Bulldogs were 30-3 last season and lost in the semifinals of the 11th Region Tournament.

“It will be a good test,” Cooksey said. “Obviously, Dunbar has a program that everybody wants to emulate. We are just going to come out here and work as hard as we can.”