After missing a week of basketball due to various setbacks, senior Amaya Curry returned to the hardwood and was explosive offensively throughout the night as she led the E-gals to a 59-38 win over Ohio County in the first round of the 3rd Region Tournament.
It was a slow start for both teams, but Apollo jumped to an early lead thanks to sophomore Jenna Dant. The big grabbed the first three buckets of the game for the E-gals, taking a 6-1 lead with 4:51 left in the first.
“I’m just pleased with how focused we were,” Head Coach Natalie Payne said. “I thought the key was getting out early in transition and I thought Jenna helped us do that by just getting easy baskets.”
However, Ohio County was able to force consecutive turnovers to climb their way back towards a lead, knotting things up at 6-6. Apollo ran into some trouble when Dant picked up her second foul shortly after the game was tied, but Curry rose to the occasion.
Catching fire late in the quarter, Curry shot a fadeaway three from the right wing at the buzzer to end the first. She notched seven points with the bucket, giving Apollo a 16-14 lead.
Curry didn’t slow down to open up the second, as she grabbed the first basket of the quarter with a mid-range jumper. With the help of the E-gals rambunctious fullcourt pressure Curry capped off a 10-0 run with an and-one to give them a 26-14 lead with 4:52 left in the first half.
“She just stepped up,” Payne said. “I think she knew she needed to step up. They were playing a little bit of a triangle-and-two and chasing Shelbie and Amaya and I thought they didn’t let that get in their heads. I thought that they continued to play through that and wanted the basketball like we’ve talked about and they were just both ready to step up and make big plays.”
Senior Rain Embry would end the run for Apollo with two free throws to make it 26-16, but the Lady Eagles couldn’t gain any momentum.
Ohio County’s offense was rushed by the E-gals defensive pressure and turnovers continued to turn into offense. Apollo was able to hold the Lady Eagles to five points in the quarter, taking a 38-19 lead into halftime.
“Our defense was there,” Payne said. “We were moving and we were in sync, especially when we went to that zone and I thought that gave us opportunities to get out and run with our guards up top… I thought transition was key.”
That was still the case coming out of the locker room, as the E-gals opened up the third with a 10-0 run until Embry ended with free throws once again to make it a 48-21 game with two minutes left in the third. Ohio County was able to hold Apollo scoreless for the final two minutes of the quarter, but went on to score one more time and headed into the fourth trailing 48-24.
While the Lady Eagles had their strongest quarter of the game offensively in the fourth, the E-gals effort on both ends of the floor was more than enough to secure the 59-38 first round win in the 3rd Region Tournament.
While Apollo entered the game owning a 14-16 overall record, Curry said that it doesn’t matter at this point in the season and they’re looking to prove everyone wrong.
“First couple of minutes in the first quarter we just knew,” Curry said. “We knew that we weren’t going to let them beat us. We’ve been prepping for them and we were just ready. A lot of people have been doubting us because of our record, but no. Throw the records out when it comes to this.”
Curry led all scorers with 21 points on the night, rattling off 11 of her points in the second quarter. A week ago the senior guard had to sit out the 9th District Championship against Owensboro Catholic due to an illness, as they fell 53-31.
On top of that, Curry had suffered an injury in the first round of the 9th District Tournament. However, she got prepared in practice all week, returned and played through the injury and led the E-gals to the 3rd Region semifinals.
“It was hard,” Curry said. “I’m also battling a sprained ankle too. I sprained that in the DC game, but I gotta fight through it [during] this time for my team.”
Payne said seeing her work her way back to playing in practice and then seeing her take the floor and play the way she did speaks to her character and was a huge lift to her and the team’s spirits.
“It was like Christmas having her back,” Payne said. “Just seeing her face for the first time out there moving around with the ball in her hands, it just brought me pure joy. She was a little weak to start with, but she’s just taken off where she left off. It’s her senior year and she’s going to try to fight through whatever she can fight through and she’s been there and done that. So I expect her to be ready and willing to go through the wars.”
While Curry shined, Apollo played arguably its most complete game of the season. While Dant tallied 14 points and senior Shelbie Beatty tallied nine to be the second and third leading scorers on the night, there were a number of E-gals that contributed in order to come away with the win.
“K’Asia Palmer and Jennifer Lee were key on the boards, just putting bodies on people,” Payne said. “Gracie Survant did a good job of handling the basketball and finishing around the basket through contact… I don’t know how many Shelbie ended up with, but again, took care of the ball, got us what we needed to get in and found the person that was open at the right time to get them a good look. I thought she played well defensively and got some key steals, so I was pleased with her all-around game as well.”
Apollo has its work cut out for them in the next round, as they will be facing the No. 10 ranked team in the Commonwealth in Meade County. The two met in the E-gals first game of the season, as they fell to the Lady Waves 70-57.
Apollo will look to stifle freshman Peyton Bradley, who averages 20 ppg on top of cracking their fullcourt pressure when they meet at 7:45 p.m. on Friday at the Owensboro Sportscenter.
“We got our hands full, we know that,” Payne said. “They have multiple weapons. You know Bradley is an all-around can do anything type of guard. She’s just so under control… But she gets her teammates involved… We’ve got to work on making sure that we value possessions and take care of the basketball and be ball strong because they get after it.”
