After the Harlan County Lady Bears got over their first-game jitters, they were OK. Unfortunately, they waited a little too late.

The Lady Bears pulled within a point after trailing by as many as 14 in the second half, but visiting Letcher Central prevailed 51-46 to spoil Harlan County High School’s first-ever girls basketball game.

“We started attacking in the fourth quarter and put ourselves in position to win,” Harlan County coach Anthony Nolan said. “You can’t wait until the fourth quarter to start attacking.

“There’s been so much hype, and they put so much pressure on themselves. They wanted to represent the school well and make everybody proud. Hopefully, next game we’ll come out better early and be a little more effective in what we do.”

Harlan County (0-1) was hampered by 28 turnovers, including 17 in the first half as the Lady Cougars rolled out to a comfortable lead. Many of the turnovers were caused by deflections as the Lady Cougars capitalized on their size advantage in the backcourt.

“We have good length at the guard position,” Letcher Central coach Dickie Adams said. “In fact, probably the biggest girl on my team (junior Brittany Sexton) is a guard. We have to play a lot better than we did tonight, but that’s why you play the first game of the year — to see where you are.”

“We were very complacent early,” Nolan said. “We didn’t attack their pressure, and we were trying to make too many passes. They play really good defense, and they move well. You can’t just toss the ball around with that kind of defense.”

The Lady Bears hit just two of 14 shots in the first quarter as Letcher Central jumped out to a 14-4 lead. Brittany Sexton scored five points in the period, and junior forward Shannon Bays added four.

Kendra Russell drained a 3-pointer and sophomore guard Johnnie Parker added a steal and layup to help Harlan County pull within seven at the 6:38 mark in the second quarter, prompting Adams to call timeout. Heather Maggard added a basket inside to cut the Lady Bears’ deficit to five, but Letcher Central answered with a 7-2 run and led 28-17 at the break.

The Lady Bears made a concerted effort to get the ball inside in the third quarter, getting all 12 of their points from their post players as they kept pace. Maggard, a junior, scored eight points and grabbed five rebounds in the period.

“We got the confidence to start attacking and not throw the ball away. It’s hard to get a shot attempt when you have so many turnovers,” Nolan said. “We settled down in the second half and got some good looks. We were always in striking distance, and once we settled down, we had good inside-outside balance.”

Harlan County opened the fourth quarter with an 8-2 run to pull within five. Russell and sophomore Johnnie Parker each nailed a 3-pointer in the run, and Samantha Sexton added a putback.

Russell added her third trey at the 4:46 mark, cutting the Lady Bears’ deficit to 43-40. Harlan County pulled within a point as Whitney Gilliam and Sexton each made one of two at the line in a 46-second span.

The Lady Cougars slowed Harlan County’s momentum as Meade penetrated for a basket and Sharaye Kincer scored on a putback to push Letcher’s lead back to five with 1:44 remaining.

Maggard led the Lady Bears with a double-double, scoring 10 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. Sexton, Russell and Parker added nine points each.

Brittany Sexton and Meade each scored 13 for the Lady Cougars. Sexton added eight rebounds and three assists.

Adams praised the play of Meade and his other top reserves, eighth-grader Kelah Eldridge and freshman Haley Whitaker.

“(Meade) played outstanding,” he said. “She’s an athlete. She’s got extremely long arms and is good off the dribble. She gave us a big lift off the bench, and so did (Eldridge) and a couple of the other girls.

“We have one senior, two juniors and the rest are freshmen and sophomores and eighth-graders. But I don’t really have a problem with that. I’ve had some really good eighth-graders. It’s not unusual to play a lot of eighth-graders — you see that a lot at the state tournament.”

The Lady Bears will continue their tough early-season slate with a home game against defending 13th Region champion South Laurel on Friday.

“We have a very tough schedule,” Nolan said. “Tonight we played (well) for one quarter and still had a chance to win. If we played all four quarters like we did at the end, it probably would’ve been a different outcome. Maybe the nerves are out of the way and we can get down to business.”

“This team’s going to be fine,” Adams said of the Lady Bears. “I know there’s a lot of speculation about how they’re going to do. You take a couple of good post players and a good point guard and a couple of good shooters, and you can beat a lot of people.”

Letcher Central (1-0) will play host to Phelps on Thursday.

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Lyndsey Smith scored 11 points to lead the Lady Bears to a 43-30 win in the junior varsity game.

Raygon Hendrix added 10 points for Harlan County (1-0), and Bryttany Hensley scored nine. Christina York and Kalee Carroll added seven and six, respectively.

Kelah Eldridge led Letcher Central (0-1) with eight points, and Lauren Thomas scored seven.

LETCHER CENTRAL (1-0)

Myrika Begley 0-1 0-0 0, Chloe Wynn 0-1 0-0 0, Brittany Sexton 3-13 6-8 13, Sharaye Kincer 3-7 2-4 8, Shannon Bays 3-12 0-0 6, Erica Meade 5-9 3-6 13, Haley Whitaker 1-3 3-4 5, Kelah Eldridge 2-3 0-2 4, Lauren Thomas 0-0 2-2 2. Totals: 17-49 16-26 51.

HARLAN COUNTY (0-1)

Whitney Gilliam 0-2 3-5 3, Johnnie Parker 4-12 0-0 9, Kendra Russell 3-10 0-0 9, Samantha Sexton 4-10 1-4 9, Heather Maggard 5-8 0-0 10, Lyndsey Smith 0-1 0-0 0, Porche Carr 3-5 0-0 6, Jessica Tackett 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 19-48 4-9 46.

Letcher Central    14    14    12    11    —    51

Harlan County    4    13    12    17    —    46

3-point goals: Letcher Central 1-6 (Sexton 1-4, Whitaker 0-1, Eldridge 0-1), Harlan County 4-15 (Russell 3-10, Parker 1-5). Rebounds: Letcher Central 34 (Sexton 8), Harlan County 36 (Maggard 11). Assists: Letcher Central 8 (Sexton 3), Harlan County 15 (Gilliam 5). Turnovers: Letcher Central 19, Harlan County 28. Fouled out: None.