It has been an up and down past week for the Russell County Lady Lakers as they defeated visiting Taylor County Saturday but fell to Casey County on the road Monday.

"Saturday's game versus Taylor County was a good win for us," said Lady Laker coach Craig Pippen on his team's 53-39 win. "We played up-tempo and utilized our transition offense throughout the game."

Pippen said the Lady Lakers did a nice job containing Lady Cardinal star Mercedes Cox in the second half, limiting her to just 6 points.  

"Our energy led to many forced turnovers and we were able to get their post players in foul trouble," Pippen said.

LeeAnn Grider tallied 18 points for Russell County while Blair Hoover had 13 points. Regan Helm finished with eight points and Tyla Bailey scored six points. Both Lindsay Ramage and Julie Wethington scored three points each and Madison Loy finished with two points.

"This past Monday we played a very talented Casey County team," Pippen said of Monday's 58-37 loss in Liberty.

"They play extremely physical and they shot the ball well," he said. "We played well in the first half; however, our energy and intensity level was not where it needed to be to score a win against an opponent as talented as they are."

Pippen said his team took some things away from the game that they must improve on.  

"Now we have to take that and get better from now until next Monday when we travel to Metcalfe County," he said. "I am really going to challenge our players to give more effort and intensity from here on out."   

Ramage scored 16 points in the loss while Grider had 11 points. Wethington, Bailey and Ally Harris each had three points and Amanda Cooper had one point. Casey County was led by Michelle Coffman with 23 points.

"It's not about X's and O's, it's about effort and grit," Pippen said.

"They all know our system. We must challenge them to be consistent when it comes to effort and intensity. We want to be at our best.”