The Lady Aces’ chaotic defense wreaked havoc on Apollo’s offense on Thursday, helping them force a barrage of turnovers throughout the night as they claimed the 9th District Championship with a 53-31 win.
As the E-gals were without standout senior guard Amaya Curry following a gametime decision, Owensboro Catholic made sure to apply pressure from the jump. Using fullcourt pressure and an extended 2-3 zone, the Lady Aces went on a 14-2 run with 3:36 left in the first.
“They get after you,” Head Coach Natalie Payne said. “They score a lot off of their defense. They get out and run and they get it to the right people and take the right shots at the right time. They’re a good basketball team.”
Apollo was able to slow Owensboro Catholic down for the remainder of the quarter, but still went into the second trailing 19-4.
The Lady Aces scored in spurts in the third quarter, but were creating turnovers in spades and went into halftime owning a 28-13 lead.
“We were getting easy buckets, easy shots,” Robertson said. “Once we got that we kind of fed off of that. We were getting a lot of turnovers and getting easy buckets.”
Owensboro Catholic didn’t take its foot off the gas in the third either, continuing to push the pace on both ends of the floor. Offensively they were able to get five points from sophomore Hailee Johnson and juniors Katie Riney and Maddie Hayden, taking a 43-19 lead into the fourth.
It was much of the same for the E-gals in the fourth. Despite having its best offensive quarter of the night and outscoring Owensboro Catholic for the first time, it was too little too late as the Lady Aces secured the 9th District Championship win at 53-31.
While Robertson was happy with his team’s efforts to avenge their 2020 district championship loss to Apollo, he feels as though they’ve got some things to improve on going forward.
“We didn’t run our offense well,” Robertson said. “We’d break it off, wouldn’t run it all the way through, we’d miss our cutters. It’s just little things. I’m expecting it to be perfect. It’s the end of February, we gotta be better.”
Despite some offensive struggles, the Lady Aces got a team-leading 14 points from Hayden and 12 points from Johnson. Hayden—typically taking on more of a slashing and distributing role—was doing it all tonight, getting to the rim and knocking down a pair of threes to lead Owensboro Catholic to the win.
“A couple of times we wanted her to take the ball to the basket and she didn’t, but overall she did a really good job,” Robertson said. “She was very aggressive. She pump faked and got to the baseline and got some easy layups.”
Meanwhile, eighth grader Kennedy Lane shined in her first district tournament appearance, stepping up in Curry’s absence by leading all scorers with 15 points.
“I thought Kennedy Lane, our eighth grader, did a really good job and played with no fear,” Payne said. “She made some mistakes just like everyone else, but she led us in scoring and rebounding. So I was pleased with her efforts.”
The E-gals usual stars struggled on the night, as sophomore Jenna Dant (seven) and senior Shelbie Beatty (six) were limited to a combined 13 points en route to the loss.
A huge key to the win for the Lady Aces was the turnover battle, as Apollo coughed the ball up 26 times, something that Robertson was thrilled with.
“We did a good job of getting our hands in the passing lanes and getting out and running when we did get those turnovers,” Robertson said. “We put a lot of pressure on their young guards.”
Now looking ahead to the 3rd Region Tournament, Payne and company are taking positives from this game for the future and are hoping to have a healthy Curry next week.
Robertson and Owensboro Catholic will celebrate this win for now, but just like Apollo knows, the 3rd Region is chock full of talented teams that are ready to compete night in and night out.
“We’ll see what we draw,” Robertson said. “You know Meade and Breckinridge are both gonna be there. Apollo, Ohio County, Butler County if they won tonight, there would be three teams with 25 wins. It’s probably one of the best [years] record-wise [for the 3rd Region]. All the teams in there are really good. It should be fun.”
