The Bellevue girls and Ludlow boys won the Northern Kentucky Athletic Conference Tournaments at Ludlow on Saturday. Here’s how they happened:
Girls
Bellevue 48, Ludlow 42
Bellevue won the rubber match between the two teams to claim the crown.
The Tigers found themselves down six entering the fourth quarter, but they outscored the Panthers, 13-4 in the final 3:18. Junior guard Sydni Massey scored seven of her 11 points for Bellevue during that time on her way to the tournament’s most valuable player honors.
“I was just proud of the girls. We didn’t have a real good third quarter,” Bellevue head coach Tommy Sorrell said. “They fought through it. We took care of the ball in the fourth quarter and made our free throws down the stretch. They stuck together as a team and were able to pull it out.”
Massey started the run with a steal and score. Then Jaylah Dowell found her sister Jayda Dowell down low for the finish to put the Tigers up for good at 39-38 before Massey made two free throws to make it 41-38 Bellevue with 1:34 remaining.
“It was great,” Jayda Dowell said of the go-ahead bucket. “Having confidence and making sure you’re in the right place are keys to scoring.”
At the other end, Jayda Dowell fouled out finishing with a team-high 12 points. Prestyn King made both free throws to make it 41-40 Tigers with 1:23 left.
That’s when Courtney McCarty came through with a huge play. Jaylah Dowell made her first free throw then missed the second one. McCarty grabbed the offensive rebound and threw it out to Massey, who was fouled. Massey hit one of the two free throws and the Tigers procceeded to make 5-of-8 free throws in the game’s final minute to pull away.
“We do a lot of free throws before and after practice so it takes a lot,” Massey said. “(Sorrell) even puts a lot of pressure on us so we take our time and really do a lot to make our free throws. It’s a really important thing to win the game.”
The Tigers saw Jaylah Dowell score nine and Ally MacPherson add eight points. Bellevue made 22-of-32 free throws overall while Ludlow hit 13-of-20. Jayda Dowell and McCarty made the all-tournament team.
Ludlow also tried to be balanced, but the Panthers had their struggles when Addy Garrett had to come out of the game with foul trouble. Garrett scored nine points before fouling out with 1:16 left in the game. Garrett and Olivia King made the all-tournament team for Ludlow.
“(Garrett) is such a nice player – one of the best in our division,” Sorrell said. “When she went out, they kind of struggled handling the ball because they put a lot on her plate and rightfully so.”
Prestyn King and Ava Hoffmeister tried to help Ludlow’s cause scoring 13 and nine points, respectively. Prestyn King made 9-of-12 free throws.
Points started off hard to come by. Olivia King hit the game’s first field goal with an offensive putback with 4:04 left in the first quarter. The game stayed tight that quarter. Jaylah Dowell hit a layup from the left side with two seconds left to give Bellevue a 12-11 lead after the first quarter.
Bellevue then scored the first 11 points of the second quarter to go up 23-11. Jayda Dowell scored five points to lead the way for the Tigers. Ludlow made four free throws in the final 2:05 of the half to trim Bellevue’s lead to 23-15 at halftime.
Ludlow came out and made that lead evaporate scoring the first nine points of the third quarter. Hoffmeister led the way scoring five points. The Panthers extended the lead to nine points at 35-26 with 1:10 left in the quarter after Cheree Pence made a three-pointer. MacPherson made a three with 10 seconds left to make it 35-29 Ludlow entering the third quarter.
“That was the kind of energy we need,” Ludlow head coach Blake Clary said. “Every play matters. I know it seems like you can look back and if we get this rebound here, the game might have been different.”
Bellevue trimmed the lead to one twice before going ahead for good. Jayda Dowell made a three before McCarty had an offensive putback to cut the Ludlow lead to 35-34 with 7:12 left in the game then Massey hit a free throw before Garrett scored to put Ludlow up 38-35 with 5:20 left in the game.
Bellevue (18-7) hosts Trimble County on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
Ludlow (16-11) travels to Newport Central Catholic on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.
TIGERS 48, PANTHERS 42
BELLEVUE — 12-11-6-19 — 48
LUDLOW — 11-4-20-7— 42
Scoring
BELLEVUE (48) — Jayda Dowell 12, Massey 11, Jaylah Dowell 9, MacPherson 8, Long 5, McCarty 3
LUDLOW (42) — Prestyn King 13, Garrett 9, Hoffmeister 9, Olivia King 6, Pence 3, Huff 2
Game Stats
3-Pointers: Bellevue 4, Ludlow 3
Free Throws: Bellevue 22/32, Ludlow 13/20
Fouls: Bellevue 20, Ludlow 28
Records: Bellevue 18-7, Ludlow 16-11
Boys
Ludlow 81, Bellevue 73
This game had a Fast and Furious type feel to it.
Both teams wanted to push the tempo and attack the rim the first opportunity available in the halfcourt sets. Ludlow happened to follow through better on shots to win the game, beating the Tigers for the third time this season.
A big difference came at the free throw line. The Panthers doubled the number of times making 13-of-20 compared to 8-of-10 for the visitors.
“I said it the other day. Our kids have a lot of character,” Ludlow head coach Aaron Stamm said. “It didn’t bother them that we got down. We got in foul trouble, had to go to the bench. Bellevue’s a really good shooting team. They made some open threes. At halftime, our kids were still good, but we tested their toughness a bit. We told them we were going to win this game by guarding man-to-man. We were going to win or lose by how hard they guarded.”
The three Panthers on the all-tournament team scored at least 20 points each. Ethan Powell and Elijah Perrin scored 22 and 21 points, respectively, with the tournament’s most valuable player Spencer Brandenburg scoring 20. Matt Wolfinbarger added 12 as four Panthers hit double figures.
“It’s crazy playing a fast pace every game,” Brandenburg said. “We give 100 percent every play. When I got in foul trouble, other players stepped up a bit. We fought hard and came back to get the win.”
Bellevue also put four players in double figures. Noah Frommeyer made a lot of things happen attacking the paint scoring 22 points to lead the Tigers. Ludlow limited that in the fourth quarter.
“We tried to go with quick guys on him,” Stamm said of Frommeyer. “We tried to go with long guys on him. Ethan Powell did a good job trying to slow him down. I thought our length hurt him a bit. He’s a tremendous shooter. We really paid attention to detail and did some great things there late.”
Jase Iles scored 14 with Zach Mertens and Tristan Woodyard scoring 12 and 10 points, respectively, for the Tigers. Curtis Rust made the all-tournament team.
Bellevue led 18-15 after the first quarter then kept the lead until the fourth quarter. The Tigers extended it to 42-32 with 1:05 left after Frommeyer scored, drew the foul then hit the ensuing free throw. The Tigers tried to play for the final shot of the half, but Perrin recorded the steal and score to make it 42-34 Bellevue at halftime.
“My coaches told me to crash and get every rebound I can so I could help the team win and I did that,” Perrin said. “I contributed to the win. We’ve been ready for this game since warmups.”
Ludlow kept it close in the third quarter. After a Frommeyer three-point play, Ludlow used a 6-0 run capped off by a Wolfinbarger jumper to trim the Bellevue lead to 53-52 with 1:10 left in the quarter. Bellevue responded with two buckets before a Powell score made it 57-54 Bellevue entering the fourth quarter.
Ludlow took the lead for good with an 8-0 run to open the fourth quarter going up 62-57. Powell scored twice to start the run and Brandenburg finished it with a jumper with 5:15 left in the game.
Bellevue cut the margin to two six times, but could not tie it or go ahead. Mertens made a three with 34.9 seconds left to make it 75-73 Ludlow before the Panthers finished it with a 6-0 run making four free throws and Powell had a steal and threw ahead to Byron Conley for the score.
“It came down to execution,” Bellevue head coach Jim Hicks said. “They did it better than we did down the stretch. Credit to them. It’s two evenly matched teams. They have our number this year.”
Ludlow (15-11) travels to St. Bernard-Elmwood Place (Ohio) on Tuesday for a 7:30 p.m. game.
Bellevue (14-11) hosts Bishop Brossart on Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
PANTHERS 81, TIGERS 73
BELLEVUE — 18-24-15-16 — 73
LUDLOW — 15-19-20-27— 81
Scoring
BELLEVUE (73) — Frommeyer 22, Iles 14, Mertens 13, Woodyard 10, Rust 8, Fornash 4, Dickerson 3
LUDLOW (81) — Powell 22, Perrin 21, Brandenburg 20, Wolfinbarger 12, Scott 3, Conley 3
Game Stats
3-Pointers: Bellevue 9, Ludlow 6
Free Throws: Bellevue 8/10, Ludlow 13/20
Fouls: Bellevue 19, Ludlow 14
Records: Bellevue 14-11, Ludlow 15-11