MURRAY, Ky. — Last year could only be described as a season of heartbreak for Calloway County. The Lady Laker basketball team won 25 games but suffered losses in the Semifinals of the Kentucky 2A State Tournament, the District Championship, and the Region Championship.

But so far this year, it’s been a year of redemption for Kirsten Collins’ squad as the Lady Lakers moved to 21-0 on the season, beating Taylor County, 49-46, to win the Kentucky 2A State Championship at the Owensboro Sportscenter Sunday afternoon.

“We had quite a few letdowns last season,” senior forward Sayler Lowe said. “Our ultimate goal throughout this whole season is to cut down nets.”

The team did just that Sunday, with Lowe scoring 25 points to lead all scorers. Jaidan Koch added 12 points and was named Tournament MVP.

“We know we wanted it,” Koch said. “Us three seniors, this is something we’ve all wanted for a really long time, and we fell short a lot last year… So we came out and we’re like, we cannot have this feeling again.”

The Lady Lakers returned home with the hardware Sunday evening with dozens of supporters from the community waiting at the school to welcome them back.

“Coming back in, I just told the girls take it all in,” Lowe said. “Take it all in, because not a lot of people get to experience it. And praise Jesus that we do, because He has been a huge piece, a part of this whole journey. I’m so thankful to have every single one of these people a part of this journey with us.”

Now, as the team looks ahead to the rest of the season, the goal of cutting down nets remains.

“We were talking at supper, and they were like last year, I think we probably would have folded, and I agree, but they’ve been in that situation, and they kind of counted, call it the disappointments that we had last season, they didn’t want to have that again,” Collins said. “They had it set in their mind that they were not going to leave there without those nets and without that trophy… We’ve cut down two nets that we’ve wanted, and now we got two more that we’re hoping to do towards the end of the year.”

Calloway County hosts McCracken County Friday at 6:00 p.m.