Mercy again has BE’s number

 MOUNT WASHINGTON - Just days before learning that they had once again qualified for the Girls’ Louisville Invitational Tournament at the end of January, the Bullitt East Lady Chargers found out that they still have a long way to go to compete in their own district.

For the third time in a year, the Lady Chargers took it on the chin from state power Mercy on Tuesday, falling 76-45 in a game that had recently been rescheduled from later in January.

Bullitt East may not have gotten the memo on the rescheduling as they suffered through a frightful first half. Coming out of the holiday tournaments, Lady Charger head coach Chris Stallings have voiced concerns over slow starts and that certainly happened in this game as the red and gold trailed 24-8 after one quarter and it was 55-24 by halftime.

Mercy figured out a way to slow down Bullitt East’s leading scorer Lindsey Duvall as the eighth-grader scored just three points in the game. The only Lady Charger player with more than six points was senior Cady Cornell who scored 13 points.

The Jaguars countered with a big night from All-State senior Whitney Hartlage who drained six three-pointers as she scored 30 points.

The loss dropped Bullitt East to 1-1 within the 24th District and it is unlikely that the Lady Chargers will see Mercy again until the District final which will be played at Fern Creek this season.

With the setback, Bullitt East is now 12-5 overall heading into a game on Saturday in the Shooting for the Cure event at Pleasure Ridge Park.

Mercy, the third-ranked team in the state, is now 10-3.

Bullitt East does not have a game early this week. They will be back in action on Thursday when they travel to Shepherdsville for the first of two meetings this season against Bullitt Central. The JV game will state at 6 p.m. with the varsity contest to follow at around 7:30 p.m.

At Bullitt East

MERCY 76 (24-31-16-5) Doherty 4, Stovall 2, Hartlage 30, Hodge 1, Bewley 5, Richardson 8, Dirckson 10, Martin 7, Stilger 9.

BULLITT EAST 45 (8-16-14-7) Emily Fryman 3, Lindsey Duvall 3, Alyssa Peak 2, Cady Cornell 13, Taylor Williamson 2, Taylor Blain 5, Kylee Willis 6, Mackenzie Bass 1, Raegan Williams 6, Sara Stevens 4.

LIT on Jan. 29

On Friday, the Lady Chargers learned that they had once again qualified for the Girls’ Louisville Invitational Tournament which will start on Jan. 29 at Ballarmine University’s Knights’ Hall.

The Lady Chargers will play the final first-round game on Tuesday, Jan. 29 when they take on Butler at 8 p.m. The two teams have already played once this season with Butler, the defending Sixth Region champions, beating Bullitt East 60-55 on Dec. 4 in Mount Washington.