Owensboro topped the Lady Aces on Friday for the first time in 14 years, using its rambunctious defense to grab a 38-33 win and put the two teams in a tie for the No. 1 seed in the 9th District Tournament.
It was a slow start for both teams, but an 8-0 run by the Lady Devils gave them an early 8-2 lead with 3:30 to go in the first quarter. Owensboro didn’t score again until the final minute of the quarter, but the pair of free throws from junior A’Lyrica Hughes kept them in front 10-7 going into the second.
The Lady Aces were able to bounce back in the second and grab the lead at 15-12 with a pull-up three from sophomore Aubrey Randolph with five minutes left in the first half, helping them gain some momentum. Neither team let up on their defensive pressure either, but it was Owensboro Catholic that hung on and took a 20-17 lead into halftime.
The defensive showcase from both teams continued coming out of the locker room as well, as the Lady Aces narrowly outscored Owensboro 7-6 in the quarter to remain out in front 27-23 heading into the fourth. Owensboro Catholic grabbed the first bucket of the quarter to make it a six-point game, but back-to-back clutch buckets from senior Melia Moorman and a charge on the other end drawn by Hughes had things knotted up at 29-29 and momentum in the Lady Devils favor.
Less than a minute later senior Chandler Worth caught the ball in the middle of the zone, stepping through for a layup and the 31-29 Owensboro lead. The Lady Aces responded swiftly with a layup from junior Jenna Krampe, but struggles throughout the night didn’t faze senior Lindsey Gibson who proceeded to hit a clutch three and make the 11-2 run put the Lady Devils out in front 34-31 with under five minutes to play.
Owensboro Catholic continued to struggle offensively as well, with Owensboro’s defensive pressure keeping the Lady Aces from being able to get a shot for about a minute and a half. This was just part of a four-minute scoreless drought for the Lady Aces, as they weren’t able to find the bottom of the net until Randolph’s layup with 26.9 seconds to go cut it to 36-33.
But shortly after senior K’Asia Palmer sank both free throws at the line, as what would be the proverbial dagger in a 38-33 win and tie the two teams for first in the 9th District. After the game Head Coach Jansen Locher spoke on how exciting it was to be a part of such a big win, one that had been 14 years in the making.
“Man it was fun,” Locher said. “There’s been so many years where this hasn’t been a competitive game. We’ve just been trying to tell our girls ‘keep working and we’ll get there.’ Last time we fell a little bit short and tonight they just stayed with it. We just preached ‘32 minutes.’ We were there, we were there, we were there and then we finally got over the hump.”
Locher is referencing their play in the fourth quarter, as the Lady Devils effort led to a 15-6 point differential in the final eight minutes en route to the win.
“Hustle and intensity,” Locher said. “We’ve preached it all year long, if we hustle and we have the intensity for 32 minutes we can be with anybody at the end. The last couple of weeks we’ve been hit or miss with that, but tonight I felt like we brought it the entire game.”
The defensive effort from Owensboro was definitely one for the books, as it is Owensboro Catholic’s season-low at 33 points. Locher said he and his team know just how tough it can be to slow down the Lady Aces offensive power, so they just really tried to focus on making them work for the buckets they earned.
“I think we did a good job of keeping them out of a rhythm,” Locher said. “But we know they can get hot quick, so it’s just [trying to] make them hit contested shots. We know they can, but tonight they didn’t and it paid off for us.”
Junior Chandler Worth was one of two players to finish in double figures on the night, leading all scorers and the Lady Devils with 11 points to go along with a number of steals and rebounds. The win moves Owensboro to 17-8 overall, but more importantly puts them at 5-1 in district play and ties them with the Lady Aces atop the 9th District—with a coin flip deciding the No. 1 seed in the near future.
This is a huge win for a program that has quickly turned things around in the last two years, one that Locher thinks solidifies them as one of the best teams in the region.
“I hope it means that we’re for real and that everybody knows that we’re for real,” Locher said. “We laid an egg the last couple of games…We think that they’re definitely one of the best teams in the region. We’ve said all year that we can compete against the best teams and tonight we proved it.”
But while Owensboro wants to celebrate the win, they also know that their work isn’t done. They’ll get back to practice tomorrow, starting the last week of the regular season on Monday when they host Madisonville-North Hopkins at 7 p.m.
“We know that we might see them again and we gotta prepare for that,” Locher said. “We’re going to celebrate tonight. We’re thrilled by the win, but it’s back to work tomorrow.”
Owensboro Catholic on the other hand falls to 18-7, as Head Coach Michael Robertson said after the game that he was disappointed in his team’s effort and that they didn’t come ready to play. Offensive struggles played a key part in the loss, as the Lady Aces had countless turnovers and had Randolph as the only player in double figures with 10.
“We didn’t take the mismatches that we had and attack them,” Robertson said. “We sat back and played very passive. But Unique and A’Lyrica are both a handful and you’ve gotta know where they are. We have talked about this plenty of times, where you don’t bring the ball up against those two and you let somebody else bring it up. We’re trying to run and bring up against them and throw it to the person that’s guarding them all night long. It was a very frustrating night.”
Owensboro Catholic will have to have a short memory though—which Robertson said he and his team are planning on—as they look to turn things around with a tough game against Bowling Green on the road Saturday at 2 p.m.
