BROWNSVILLE — With his team locked in a tight battle during Friday’s matchup with visiting South Warren, Edmonson County girls’ basketball coach Jody Booth took a timeout to have a little talk with his team.

“He gets into us sometimes, but it always lights a fire under us,” senior forward Cariann Williams said. “That definitely helped.”

Indeed, that fire became a roaring flame with Edmonson County regaining control heading into halftime then pulling away with a dominant 75-47 victory over the Spartans.

Powered by another big night from Williams, Edmonson County (5-2) outscored South Warren 34-15 in the second half to blow the game open and earn a third straight win.

The Lady Cats got off to a strong start before hitting a lull midway through the first half. Edmonson County led 9-3 and extended the advantage to 23-11 after a three-point play from Williams with 29.9 seconds left in the first half.

South Warren (1-5) got a 3-pointer from JaNya Anderson to close the first, sparking a 12-0 run that included 3s from Mila Barber and Catherine Calvert that allowed the Spartans to pull even with 5:19 left in the half — prompting Booth’s fiery timeout.

Edmonson County responded with an 8-1 run, overcoming a third foul by Williams, to regain control. Hayley Sanders 3 extended the margin back to double digits — making the score 39-29. Both teams added two more points in the final seconds to make the score 41-31 at halftime.

“The first half I told them that (South Warren) was in foul trouble and that is where we should be extending the lead,” Jody Booth said. “Things didn’t go our way. We couldn’t extend and we kept them in the ballgame. It gave them confidence. I challenged the girls at halftime that we needed to come out, kill the confidence and keep doing what we are doing, but do it a little bit better.”

Williams took over offensively to start the second half, scoring the Lady Cats’ first 10 points before a 3 from Sanders made the score 54-28 after 3.

The lead continued to grow in the fourth as the outside shots started to fall. Addison Spainhoward connected on a pair of 3s to cap off a 15-0 run that began in the third, stretching the margin to 64-38 with Edmonson County’s lead growing to as many as 29 points.

“I lagged a little bit in the second quarter,” Williams said. “If we are struggling he usually says to get it into the paint and then we can get shots outside the paint.”

Williams finished the night with 28 points and 16 rebounds. The game-high included a 16-for-17 night at the free-throw line.

“I was struggling,” Williams said. “I was going 70% right now and I worked on it. I shot 50 free throws Wednesday morning. I wanted to fix that so bad. Let’s hope I can keep doing that.”

Spainhoward added 16 points, while Shelby Sowders also recorded a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds.

“We’ve got a lot of momentum,” Booth said. “We’ve won three in a row. We’ve got a big test on Monday against Breckinridge County, but I really like the way we have handled some failure. We’ve really focused in practice and got better in some situational stuff. I like the way this team continues to push one another and get better. That’s all you can ask for while we are sitting here at Christmas break.”

Anderson led South Warren with 12 points, while Kallie Kuzma added 11 points.

SWHS 14 17 7 9 — 47

ECHS 23 18 13 21 — 75

SW — Anderson 12, Kuzma 11, Degenhart 7, Reynolds 6, Calvert 4, Fugate 4, Barber 3.

EC — Williams 28, Spainhoward 16, Sowders 13, Sanders 8, Decker 7, Hill 3.