12-29-10 —     The Wayne County Cardinals played at Lincoln County on Tuesday, 

December 7. The game marked the 43rd meeting between the two schools  and Lincoln County leads the series with a 22-21 record.

    The last time the two teams met was in December 2009, when Lincoln County earned a 74-64 win.

    But it was the Cards taking it from start to finish in the most 

recent matchup. Wayne County led early and finished with a 63-32 win  over the Patriots.

    "This was another very good road win for our team. Our seniors had 

never beaten Lincoln County so they were very determined to leave  

Stanford with a victory," said Wayne County Coach Rodney Woods.

    Wayne County was up 18-7 at the first stop and then held the 

Patriots to only 6 points in the second quarter to push ahead 26-13  

at the half.

    The Cards led 47-23 at the end of the third quarter and ended up 

with the 31 point win.

    Seniors Austin Shearer and Gavin Dunagan led the Cards with 18 

points and 14 points respectively.

    Shearer hit 2 of 2 from the field and 2 of 4 from the 3-point line. 

He was 8 of 10 from the charity stripe. Shearer grabbed 12 rebounds  

in the contest, which put him over the 600 mark for his career.

    Dunagan connected on 4 of 8 from the field and was a perfect 3 of 3 

from the free throw line. He led Wayne County on the boards with 16  

rebounds.

    "Gavin and Austin really hit the boards hard," noted Woods. "Ryan 

and Kyle had one of their better defensive game on Lincoln's guards  

and Dagan posted strong in the second half."

    Kyle Hopper finished with 9 points, while Ryan Hopper added 8 

points. Kyle Hopper led the team in assists with 2 and Ryan Hopper  

led them in steals with 2.

    For the game, the Cards connected on 21 of 44 for 47 percent. They 

were 7 of 20 from beyond the arc for 35 percent and hit 14 of 18 from  

the free throw line for 77 percent.

    Lincoln County was led by Zach Hill with 13 points.

    The Patriots shot only 24 percent from the field, hitting 14 of 58. 

They were 2 of 23 on 3-pointers for 8 percent and hit 2 of 6 from the  

free throw line for 33 percent.

    The Cards grabbed 47 rebounds compared to only 26 for the Patriots. 

Wayne County committed 14 turnovers, while Lincoln County had 6.



    Next up for Wayne County was a district contest at Southwestern.

    "We need to continue to work and see the need for improvement as the 

season goes along," said Woods. "The Friday night game at  

Southwestern is huge this early in the season."

    See a related story in this edition for game details.