Cumberland County used experience, and a little bit of stamina, to finally slay the Franklin-Simpson dragon with a 51-44 win over the Lady Cats at the State Farm Fourth Region Shootout on Saturday at Bowling Green High School.

Less than 24 hours after a big District 16 win at Monroe County, Cumberland County (5-1) was able to build an early lead and keep control to earn its first-ever win over Franklin-Simpson.

“I was a little nervous about coming in here and playing today,” Cumberland County coach Kristen Anderson said. “Franklin-Simpson is always going to be top notch. Coming in after a big district win last night at Monroe, I knew we’d have to find some legs and really get after it. We made some adjustments on their two-man game and I think that really helped us and got us a little bit of a lead to secure the win.”

Cumberland County never trailed, opening with three 3-pointers from three different players in the first four minutes to build an 11-6 lead.

Franklin-Simpson (1-2) pulled within four late in the half before Madi Cooksey scored four points in the final 81 seconds to make the score 28-20 at halftime.

The Lady Panthers maintained a bit of a margin for all the third quarter, with Franklin finally making a push in the fourth quarter. Allye Pennington’s 3 with 1:22 remaining pulled the Lady Cats within 45-41, but Cumberland County scored on back-to-back possessions to push the margin back to eight and essentially seal the victory.

Anderson said her team’s experience helped down the stretch.

“We have all five starters back from last year,” Anderson said. “I didn’t lose anybody and I am comfortable with any of those girls having the ball in their hands when it comes to the end of the game. They’re comfortable getting to the free-throw line or making something happen and we did just that at the end of the game.”

Cooksey led the way for Cumberland County with 30 points, while Abby Morgan added 12 points. The Lady Panthers entered the game with four players averaging at least 11 points a night.

“It’s just special knowing we can come out with a different leading scorer every night,” Cooksey said. “You can’t just shut one person down on our team. We have five people, six people, that can score.”

Pennington had 28 points to lead the way for Franklin-Simpson. Kloie Smith finished with eight points, battling foul trouble all night.

“I thought the biggest difference in the game was execution,” FS coach Ashley Taylor said. “I thought they executed a little better than we did. I thought we were a little out of sorts. That was the difference in two teams – one returning everybody and only returning one main (player) and trying to figure it out. These games we’ve played early, I’ve really challenged our girls. I wanted us to grow. I wanted us to play tough teams and we’ve done that so far. These are some of the growing pains that Franklin is going to have to go through this year.”

Both teams return to action at 6 p.m. on Tuesday. Cumberland County will play at Clinton County, while Franklin-Simpson will play at Glasgow in a Class 2A Sectional semifinal.

FSHS 8 12 10 14 – 44

CCHS 13 15 10 13 – 51

FS – Pennington 28, Smith 8, Mylor 4, Taylor 3, Butler 1.

CC – M. Cooksey 30, Morgan 12, McDonald 4, Willen 3, Walden 2.