The Lady Devils defense and a monster fourth quarter from freshman Unique Carter-Swanagan were crucial factors in a 48-43 win on Saturday afternoon, pushing them past Breckinridge County for their first trip to the 3rd Region Championship since the 2006-07 campaign.
A layup and a steal and a layup for junior Caroline Lucas gave the Lady Tigers a quick 4-0 start, before senior K’Asia Palmer gave Owensboro its first layup of the night at the six-minute mark. It was Palmer who later gave the Lady Devils its first lead at 7-6 with 3:30 to go in the first quarter, as they were able to break through Breckinridge County’s 2-3 zone.
Freshman Unique Carter-Swanagan then got a three, followed by a steal and a layup to help Owensboro close the first quarter leading 12-11. The second quarter was much of the same as both teams were dialed in defensively, holding each other to single digits with the Lady Tigers holding a slight edge and going into the break up 18-16.
Breckinridge County took that momentum into the third quarter, going on a 7-2 run to make it a 25-18 game with 3:30 to go in the quarter. The Lady Devils kept chipping away though, as their fullcourt pressure helped them make it a two-possession deficit at 28-24 heading into the fourth.
That fullcourt pressure made dividends early in the third, as Hughes pick-pocketed Grimes and Lucas on back-to-back possessions helping kickstart Owensboro on both ends of the floor.
“She got both clean and I thought she got a couple more clean that they called her on fouls, but, you know, she got it, she made the shot. Everybody feeds off her energy. When she gets going, I mean, usually it’s electric and the crowd gets into it. So really just started to feed off of it and then we were able to kind of get into a little bit of pressure with it. We tried to change up our pressure tonight, even going zone a little bit, but [wanted] keep them off balance.”
And did they ever keep them off balance, as shortly after Carter-Swanagan was fouled on a floater and sank the free throw to make it a 7-0 run and a 31-30 Lady Devils lead. Hughes followed with a bucket and a free throw after an offensive rebound in back-to-back possessions, taking a 34-30 lead with the Lady Tigers still looking for their first bucket in nearly four minutes with 4:03 to play in the game.
Breckinridge County wasn’t done fighting though, as Lucas was able to convert an and-one late to make it a three-point game with 1:43 left to play. Owensboro was dealt a big blow a few possessions later as well, as Hughes was hit with a questionable reach-in foul for her fifth—ending her night and sending Grimes to the charity stripe with the Lady Tigers down 40-35 with 1:32 to go.
Grimes was unable to sink any at the line, but Lucas made up for it with a pair with 1:18 to play to make it a 40-37 game. However, in Hughes’ absence the freshman Carter-Swanagan stepped up, knocking down a pair of free throws to make it 42-37 and then taking a charge on Lucas on the other end to regain possession with 1:09 to play.
Carter-Swanagan went on to knock down 10-14 from the line in the fourth quarter, scoring 12 of her game-leading 25 points to help close the door on a 48-43 win and send the Lady Devils to the 3rd Region Championship. Unique embodied the phrase ‘big things come in small packages’ on Saturday, making a larger than life impact on both ends of the floor with her never-ending motor despite only having one 3rd Region Tournament game under her belt.
“She doesn’t play like a freshman,” Locher said. “A lot of people don’t even realize that she’s a freshman, cause they’ve seen her out here so much, but the way she was able to take care of the basketball today and hit some shots [was big]… Her confidence kept growing as the game went on and that’s why we wanted to have the ball in her hands at the end, especially once A’Lyrica fouled out.”
Palmer was also instrumental in the win for Owensboro, as she provided a big presence inside and on the glass while also finishing as the team’s second-leading scorer on the night with eight points. Not to mention her leadership with plenty of postseason experience under her belt, something that Locher praised after the win.
“She’s been there all year for us,” Locher said. “She’s our anchor on defense. She just talks everybody through it. She’s not gonna fill up the stat sheet, but she’s gonna do what we need her to do to win and she did it. She did it. Her rebounds were huge tonight. She got a couple of putbacks in there tonight and was just talking to the girls, keeping them focused on what they’re doing on defense. it’s kind of a surprise to some people what she’s doing, but she’s been there all year for us, so it’s no surprise to us.
Having not been to a 3rd Region Championship game since the 2006-07 campaign, Locher spoke after the game about just how excited he was for the Lady Devils’ hard work and vision at the beginning of the year coming to fruition.
“Man it’s awesome,” Locher said. “We said at the very beginning of the year it’s us against everybody and all we want to do is give ourselves a chance and, you know, don’t listen to anybody outside. Stay together and that’s what we did. We took some bumps in the road. We lost to a good Breckinridge County team earlier in the year, but we were able to play better this time.”
The Lady Devils will face a familiar foe in Owensboro Catholic in the 3rd Region Championship at 3 p.m. on Sunday, marking the fourth time that they will have faced off this season. Owensboro went 1-2 in those games, defeating the Lady Aces for the first time since 2009 on Feb. 11 before falling in the 9th District Championship 52-43 weeks later.
Locher said that he is thrilled for the Lady Devils players, coaches and fans, thankful for the opportunity to compete for a 3rd Region Championship and excited for the community to witness a huge game on a local stage on Sunday.
“I’ve coached against Michael and he’s gonna have his girls ready,” Locher said. “They had a big win today, so it’s gonna be two teams that just need to come out, get rid of the jitters early hopefully and then just play basketball. Whenever we play and we forget about the scenario and the score and we just play basketball, we feel like we’re as good as everybody. So just do that and whatever happens, happens. Leave it all on the court. It’s gonna be two teams playing hard. You know, the city of Owensboro, nothing else is going to be going on tomorrow, so I hope there’s going to be a lot of red and a lot of green out there tomorrow.”
