It may not have been an elimination game. But beyond the county rivalry, recording the 20th win of the season and region tournament seeding positions, each girls basketball team had different motivation factors.
The Ryle Lady Raiders had won the previous four 33rd District Tournament crowns and hoped for a fifth straight on their home floor resulting in 10 consecutive district tournament wins. On the other side, the Cooper Lady Jaguars wanted to earn the first district tournament championship in school history.
When it came time to hand out the championship trophies, the Cooper Lady Jaguars (20-9 overall) rushed the floor and their classmates ultimately joined them knowing they just made history with a 60-49 victory over the Lady Raiders (19-9) on Thursday. Cooper has won seven straight including putting an end to the 17-game winning streak of the rival Conner Lady Cougars (22-4) in the district semifinals on Tuesday.
“It’s special for our program,” said Justin Holthaus, Cooper Head Coach. “It comes down to our kids. We talked about it before we broke for the fourth (quarter). I said it’s all about toughness these last eight minutes. Who’s willing to get stops on the defensive end then down on the other end, getting buckets, scoring at the rim because they were real physical, especially in that second half. I tip my hat to Ryle for fighting, continuing to battle back. But our girls just showed a lot of resiliency, toughness and fight. I think all our experiences playing a really tough schedule really prepped us for a game like this.”
The last loss for the Lady Jaguars came 53-49 on the same floor against the same opponent. Ryle also beat host Cooper, 57-50 Dec. 14 during the regular season.
Katie Haitz took over the Ryle program in 2015 and the program has soared to astounding heights winning the state championship in 2019. Ryle won three straight 9th Region championships between 2018 and 2020. This marks just the second time in Haitz’ seven years Ryle has not won a district tournament crown. But unlike the other time in 2017, Ryle still moves on to the region tournament.
Both teams tried to win with balance each putting three players in double figures. The two leading scorers for Cooper led the way. Sophomore guard/forward Logan Palmer scored 17 and junior forward/guard Whitney Lind scored 14.
“We went to practice the other day, looked up and saw the banners,” Lind said. “We used that as motivation because we saw no championships for our program.”
Lind recalled the struggles the program endured her eighth grade and freshman seasons going 3-24 and 9-19 battling youth and inexperience. But Cooper finished 17-5 during Holthaus’ first season as head coach that saw the 2020-21 season delayed until January, 2021 because of the Coronavirus 2019 pandemic.
“It’s kind of like anything. It’s a process of getting better day by day,” Holthaus said. “We talk about that. A lot of people want that instant success. I’ve continued to talk to these girls because we are a young group. We have to go through these experiences because it’s not going to happen overnight. I think our girls have stuck to that. They’ve bought into that process and fight every single day. They’re really good girls. They get along on and off the court so that really helps with consistency on the court. They’ve grown up really quick.”
But the tournament’s most valuable player in junior guard Kay Freihofer came through the most down the stretch scoring 11 of her 13 points in the fourth quarter. She scored three big buckets after Ryle trimmed the lead to 47-43 on a Sarah Baker offensive rebound with 5:17 left in the game.
The other two starters in senior guard Jesse Palmer and sophomore guard Liz Freihofer scored eight points each. The Freihofer sisters grabbed five rebounds each to lead Cooper.
Cooper made 21 of 46 shots for 46 percent including 6 of 15 from three-point range for 40 percent and 12 of 14 free throws for 86 percent. The Lady Jaguars had 1.2 points per possession and 1.13 points per shot to .96 and 1.04 for the Lady Raiders.
Cooper had 28 defensive stops to 23 for Ryle. But the biggest thing that stand out is Cooper scored 26 points to four off turnovers. Cooper had eight steals off 15 Ryle turnovers and yielded three steals off seven turnovers. Cooper also had 10 fouls and three assists.
Baker led Ryle scoring 16 points to go with three assists. Sophomore guard/forward Quinn Eubank nearly had a double-double recording 13 points to go with nine rebounds and junior guard/forward Austin Johnson scored 12.
Ryle made 20 of 43 shots for 47 percent including 3 of 9 from three-point range for 33 percent and 6 of 9 free throws for 67 percent. The Lady Raiders won the rebounding battle 26-20 to go with 15 fouls and four assists.
Johnson and Jesse Palmer made triples to start the game before Baker put Ryle up 5-3. But Cooper took the lead for good with five in a row. Jesse Palmer scored before Liz Freihofer made a free throw then scored.
Cooper led 14-9 before going on a 10-0 run to go up 24-9 before junior guard Abby Holtman hit a free throw to trim the margin to 24-10 after the first quarter. Lind made a triple and three-point play during that Lady Jaguar run.
Ryle came out in the second quarter using a 1-3-1 zone defense to get back in the game. Junior guard Meredith Snider made a triple from the right wing before hitting Eubank for a lay-up to cut the lead to 24-15.
“I think we kind of got into the mindset of having to get the ball out quick,” Holthaus said. “We weren’t really good with our rotations, our pass fakes and things like that. Ryle did a good job forcing us to shoot some jump shots. In that second quarter, we kind of slowed down. We weren’t hitting shots. Ryle gave us a bunch of different looks. At the end of the day, I thought our kids really executed, especially there in that fourth quarter.”
After a Logan Palmer offensive put-back, Ryle ran off seven in a row to pull within four at 26-22. After Eubank converted a three-point play, Logan Palmer made another three to put Cooper up 31-25 at halftime.
“We knew defense was going to win it for us,” Liz Freihofer said. “We locked them down on defense and our offense came to us after that. We’re just really gelling at the right time. We took our losses, took our jabs in the mouth during the season. I think it made us stronger as a team and made us come together when it really counted.”
Ryle did trim the margin to 33-31 with 6:24 left in the third quarter after a Baker score. But Cooper responded with seven straight. Logan Palmer hit two buckets during that run. Lind then scored to put the Lady Jaguars up 42-33 with 2:21 left in the first half.
But she picked up her third foul with two minutes left in the half and had to sit. But the likes of sophomore forward Bella Deere, sophomore guard Maleah Alexander and seventh grade guard Haylle Noel held things down until she returned in the fourth quarter.
“We just keep pushing and train a lot trying just to get better with everything,” Noel said. “My team has taught me so much and I’ve learned so much from (Coach) Holthaus.”
Ryle finished the half with six points. Eubank made two free throws and a lay-up before Holtman drew a foul on an offensive rebound and made two free throws to trim the Cooper lead to 42-39 entering the fourth quarter.
“Part of it is being able to get in (battles) and fight back,” Haitz said. “When we needed to capitalize right there and push to be able to get the lead, we didn’t. We ended up making a couple mistakes on the offensive side. We made some mental defensive mistakes as well. When you’re playing against a good team like that, you can’t do those things.”
Lind made a three-point play 21 seconds into the fourth quarter to put Cooper back up 45-39. Ryle cut the lead to four twice after that, but came no closer.
Cooper is making just its third appearance in the region tournament in its 14th season opening in 2008. The Lady Jaguars finished district tournament runner-up in 2017 losing 61-57 to Conner and last year losing 56-50 to Ryle.
Cooper, under former Head Coach Nicole Levandusky who attended the game, drove all the way to the region title game in 2017 losing 58-52 to eventual state semifinalist Holmes. Cooper lost 64-55 at Dixie Heights in the quarterfinals last year.
Logan Palmer, Lind, Eubank and Baker made the all-tournament team. Conner sophomore guard Anna Hamilton and Boone County sophomore guard Kassidy Peters also made the team.
The 9th Region Tournament drawing takes place at Holmes on Saturday at 9 a.m. The quarterfinal games take place Sunday. Cooper takes on Highlands, Holy Cross or Ludlow. Ryle takes on Newport Central Catholic, Dixie Heights or Notre Dame.
33rd District Girls Basketball Tournament Results at Ryle:
Semifinals on Tuesday, Feb. 22:
Ryle 63, Boone County 17
Cooper 51, Conner 18
Title Game on Thursday, Feb. 24:
Cooper 60, Ryle 49