Although many regional tournaments across the Bluegrass were postponed on Friday night due to inclement weather, the Ninth Region girls semifinals soldiered on.
Cooper carried a 27-3 record into the first matchup with Notre Dame, who had won six of eight games entering Friday night. In the second game, 33rd District runners-up Ryle faced off with Holy Cross, winners of 13 of their past 15.
Here's how the penultimate matchups of the Ninth Region tournament panned out.
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Cooper runs past Notre Dame with defense, consistency
The Jaguars played defense early, and it paid dividends. In the first quarter, they forced three straight turnovers en route to seven total takeaways in the first half. For the game, Cooper cashed in 14 total points off of 14 Notre Dame turnovers. Maleah Alexander led the way with 4 steals, while Whitney Lind and Kay Freihofer each had two.
"We'll still continue to hang our hat on the defensive end, and I thought we did a really good job of that in the first half," head coach Justin Holthaus said.
With the score tied 4-4 just minutes into the game, Cooper used that defense to go on a 24-1 run and establish an insurmountable lead. Four different players scored in that stretch, with Liz Freihofer leading the way with eight points in the first half.
"Any time you come out and get a lead like that, your girls are a little bit more comfortable, but you gotta keep your foot on the pedal," Holthaus said.
Despite a comfortable 31-9 halftime lead, Holthaus has preached consistency with this team. Even after pulling the starters at the start of the fourth quarter, younger players Addison Brissey, Haylee Noel and Zene Thompson were able to maintain the lead for a 53-30 margin of victory.
"That's definitely defense and keeping a mindset of 'It's zero-zero', or we're down," Alexander said.
Notre Dame finishes the season with a 19-11 record. The Pandas started four sophomores for most of the season, meaning their young core should return to the regional tournament next year to make more noise.
Second half spurt puts Ryle in the title game
In the nightcap, the Ryle Raiders struggled to create separation from Holy Cross. They even trailed by 5 points before only trailing by one at the break (22-21). But everything changed in the third stanza as the Raiders were able to make five 3-pointers to take a 4-point lead into the final period. Abby Holtman and Austin Johnson both made two triples and Gracie Carrigan made one.
"You just keep shooting, and they fell," Holtman said.
Ryle had to score at a different level in the fourth quarter. The Raiders were forced to protect their lead when the Indians started fouling, and they responded by making 16 of 18 free throws in the final frame. Quinn Eubank scored nine of her 19 points at the charity stripe, while Holtmann converted all six of her fourth-quarter free throws to give the Raiders a 69-57 victory.
"We practice free throws like crazy, so I'm glad we were able to hit them," Holtmann said.
The third key to Ryle's victory was a team effort. Julia Hunt and Nejai Lewis combined for 9 points in the second quarter but scored just 4 points total after halftime. Offensively, Ryle successfully drew them away from the basket to open up the paint. On defense, they packed a two-three zone into the paint, forcing Holy Cross to take outside shots.
"We stuck to our plan of what we were going to do and it worked out for us," head coach Katie Haitz said.
Similar to Notre Dame, Holy Cross has a young nucleus in the coming years despite the loss of four seniors. They will be headlined by Hunt, who also plans to play collegiate volleyball.
Standout performances
- Whitney Lind, Cooper: The Ninth Region Player of the Year wasn't Cooper's leading scorer, but she may have had the best all-around stat line, finishing with 9 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals.
- Maleah Alexander, Cooper: The junior only scored 4 points, but she grabbed 4 steals and 3 rebounds to help convert defense to offense for the Jaguars.
- Georgi Kirtley, Notre Dame: She scored all four of the Pandas' second-quarter points and added six in the second half to finish with a team-high 10 points.
- Abby Holtman, Ryle: The senior sharp-shooter scored 14 of her game-high 22 points in the second half. 12 of those 14 points came either at the free-throw line or behind the three-point line.
- Aleah Arlinghaus, Holy Cross: In her final game as an Indian, she scored 12 points on four three-pointers. She also had 5 steals, 3 assists and 2 steals.
Senior salute
Noelle Hubert finishes her Notre Dame career with 1,018 points and 245 made three-pointers, shooting from beyond the arc at a 39.2% rate. This season, she is top 10 in the state in made threes with 106 and top 20 at 38.5% from deep.
Holy Cross graduates four seniors from a team that finished with a 26-8 record and won the All "A" state tournament.
Aleah Arlinghaus appeared in 114 games over four years, including every game in her sophomore, junior and senior seasons. She scored 621 points but was never a score-first point guard. Her size and quickness are what helped her stand out, especially on the defensive end.
Sarah Bottom played five years for the Indians, scoring 507 points across 124 games. She also gave the Indians an outside presence by converting 41% of her three-point attempts this season.
In one year at Holy Cross, Nejai Lewis averaged 10.5 points and gave the Indians one of the best front-court duos in Northern Kentucky alongside Julia Hunt.
Last but not least, Elizabeth McCoy appeared in 120 games over five years for the Indians, scoring 481 total points.
What's next
For the second straight year, Cooper and Ryle will face off for the chance to go to the KHSAA girls Sweet 16. Cooper won last year's title game 53-45 on their way to a state semifinal appearance. Ryle is appearing in their fifth title game in the past six years. The 33rd District rivals will be meeting for the seventh time in the past two seasons.
The championship game tips off at 7 p.m. Saturday, March 4, at NKU's Truist Arena.
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