Clark, Winningham ground Lady Owls

The White County Warriorettes hosted the first of two matchups against the Smith County Lady Owls this season on Monday at Roy Sewell Gymnasium in Sparta, cruising to a 60-43 decision behind a big night from a pair of seniors.

The last time the two teams met was in January, when the Lady Owls knocked off Sparta with a buzzer-beater in Carthage. That night was also the last time the Warriorettes lost a regular-season game, and after Monday night that still stands true.

After a slow scoring start for Sparta, the lid seemed to come off the top of the rim as White County seniors Bella Winningham and Gracie Clark started finding the bottom of the net. Winningham did most of her work in the first half, scoring 12 points with six of those 12 coming off two 3-pointers. She knocked in six more in the second half, bringing her total for the night to 18.

Clark was the big winner of the night when she got rolling with her defense in the first half then dropped 17 points in the final two periods. Clark, who signed with the University of the Cumberlands just 72 hours before, ended the night with 22 points. Winningham, the future Johnson University Lady Royal, and Clark,who will dawn a Patriot jersey in Kentucky next year, combined for two-thirds of the Warriorettes' scoring total.

Smith County wouldn't leave the Roy without putting up a fight as point guard Emry Jones led in scoring for the Lady Owls with 21 points. Kaylee Dixon was behind her with 10 points and was the go-to target for Smith County when Jones wasn't holding the ball. The Lady Owls would attempt to give the Warriorettes a taste of their own medicine, giving full court pressure on defense for a good portion of the game, but coach Michael Dodgen credited his experienced point guards for being able to make the Lady Owls' pressure seem to be a non-issue.

The Warriorettes remained undefeated with the win, improving to 7-0. They will see Smith County again in Carthage on Jan. 20, and were scheduled to face DeKalb County on the road Tuesday night.

Editor's Note: Our original post misidentified the photographer of the header image. We apologize for the error.