On a night where the Lady Ace’s second-leading scorer, Karmin Riley was sidelined with an injury, Owensboro Catholic’s depth was on full display – beating Owensboro 61-47. With a win over Apollo next Friday, Owensboro will secure the number one seed in the district.
In Riley’s stead, three different Lady Aces finished in double-digits – with Allie Martson leading the way with 14 points.
“I am proud of the way we fought,” Owensboro Catholic head coach Michael Robertson said. “We were missing one of the top players in the region in Karmin Riley and we came out and played hard.”
Taking a 15-10 lead into the second quarter, the Lady Aces went on a quick 5-0 run, but the Lady Devils fought back. Trailing by eight with seconds left, Owensboro hit a half-court buzzer-beater to enter the half trailing 29-24.
At halftime, Robertson reminded his team of the little things.
“I told them that we aren’t playing our smartest,” Robertson said. “We need to take the ball, run our offense, get out and run, make sure to keep our head up and look, and don’t dribble with our heads down. It’s things we say all the time. We were just able to capitalize.”
In the third quarter, the Lady Aces quickly went on an 11-5 run to push the lead to 11. Sophia Newby scored all six of her points in the third quarter, while Claudia Munsey and Katie Hagan both added five points. Owensboro’s Shalyn Sprinkles scored nine of her 12 points in the second half.
Leading 47-34 entering the fourth quarter, Owensboro Catholic struggled a bit to close it out. Robertson acknowledged that when they were up big, they took more threes than he would have liked to see and instead should have driven to the hoop.
Marston hit three threes to go along with her 14 points, while Hagan was second on the Lady Aces in scoring with 13 points. Aubrey Randolph finished with 11 points. For Owensboro, Gizelle Whitlock led the way with 16 points, hitting four threes, while Sprinkles finished second in scoring with 12 points.
Robertson was complimentary of the Lady Devils athletes.
“Sprinkles played hard out there,” Robertson said. “She is a gamer, and I really like the way she plays. She is a never say no kid and is tough to guard. We did a good job with her and Heleina John tonight. Something about Whitlock though, she loves playing us. She is lights out from three against us, hitting nine or 10 on the year against us.”
Owensboro head coach Jansen Locher acknowledged that his team didn’t execute their gameplan.
“We allowed them to be too comfortable,” Locher said. “Turnovers and rebounding really hurt us tonight. We have to learn from our mistakes tonight and clean things up before the district tournament starts.”
The Lady Aces return to action Saturday when they travel to McCracken County for 12:30 tip-off. The Lady Devils are off for the rest of the weekend and return to action Monday at Breckinridge County.
