The battle of the heavyweights ended with the Lady Aces successfully defending their lead late in the game against the Lady Panthers to win 64-60, thus maintaining their spot at the top of Region 3 and halting Daviess County’s win streak. Riley Karmin’s 24 second-half points and 3 late-game threes helped OCHS keep the lead out of reach of DCHS.
Daviess County got into rhythm early as they had an 11-3 lead before Catholic began to find their footing. Aubrey Randolph had a three pointer to get things going for the Lady Aces, and immediately on the other side of the court she had a block to continue to help build up the team’s momentum. A minute later, Hailee Johnson then had a steal that led to a breakaway layup to close the gap to just one point at 13-12. Another bucket by DC closed the first quarter 15-13 with the Lady Panthers leading.
Randolph kicked off the second quarter with a wide open three at the top of the key to take their lead to 18-13. Catholic’s defense then held off DCHS long enough for their offense to capitalize with a 7-point run to bring the score to 21-20. Emme Roberts then hit a three pointer to help the Lady Panthers go into halftime with a 28-22 lead.
The two teams kept it close in the third quarter until Johnson had a block that led to a steal after the inbound pass, and then scored a bucket at the other end of the court to tie the game at 28-28. Catholic scored two more baskets to take the lead, and Daviess County fought for their lead back until halftime where OCHS led by a single bucket at the end of the third quarter at 42-39.
DCHS opened up the fourth quarter with the basket that tied the game at 42-42. The deadlock didn’t last long as Riley made the first of her 3 three-pointers in the quarter to take the lead. Lady Aces head coach Michael Robertson said that Riley’s performance in the second half was crucial to OCHS closing out the win. After struggling in the first half without a single point, Robertson made it clear that she was the deciding factor that the team needed.
“Karmin Riley came to life in the second half,” he said. “I don’t think she had a point in the first half. She was struggling. She was in her own head, so I had a talk with her when they were shooting out there at halftime. I said, ‘I need you. You have got to wake up.’ She was kind of going through the motions, and once she saw one go through it was all she wrote.”
After a successful mid-range jumper from Zoey Beehn for DC, Jenna Krampe hit a key three-pointer to make it 48-44. Immediately off the inbound pass was an OCHS steal that led to another three-pointer from Riley. Lily Hoagland went coast to coast for a bucket to help DCHS cut into the lead. Riley extended the lead with another three followed by 2 free throws to put the score at 58-52 in the dying minutes. Kennedy Lane made 2 threes in a last ditch effort to steal the game, but there wasn’t enough time on the clock to take back the lead and the Lady Aces got the 64-60 win.
Riley’s 24 points, 4 threes and 6 out of 6 free throws led the Lady Aces in scoring. Krampe and Johnson followed behind with 15 and 14 points respectively.
Lane scored 20 points along with 3 threes and shot 5 of 6 from the line to lead the Lady Panthers. Beehn made all 7 of her free throws as part of her 19-point performance, and Hoagland scored 13 on the night as well.
Owensboro Catholic’s victory moved them to 17-4 on the season and firmly put them at the top of Region 3. Robertson said this win raises the stakes of their game against rivals Owensboro on Feb. 9.
“Well, it makes it an even bigger one next Friday,” he said. “We got to take care of Owensboro, but that’s for all the marbles pretty much.”
