Two starters were down in the game due to injury, but Cooper still found itself in a four-point game in the third quarter with the No. 1 team in the state Sacred Heart.
Then the Valkyries (5-0) showed why they were nationally ranked with a 13-2 run to end the quarter and eventually pulled away for a 52-40 victory over the Jaguars (2-1), Friday night in Union.
In the highly anticipated early season matchup, Cooper couldn’t cash in on early opportunities and Sacred Heart eventually made them pay with their star-studded lineup that features multiple Division I prospects.
“We’ve relied on our depth, especially early this year and girls did step up. They played a little bit out of position, but I give credit to our girls, they continued to fight. You got to play 32 minutes against them. Defensively you have to be really good and I thought we guarded them well enough to win tonight,” Jaguars coach Justin Holthaus said. “I just think some shots weren’t falling especially early and in that second half, we kind of got one-sided on the court and there was a lot of dribbling going on.”
Already without senior guard Kay Freihofer with an injury in the first half, junior forward Logan Palmer hit the sidelines in the third quarter, Cooper trailing by just four at 26-22 after Damysia Knox’s layup with 6:16 to play in the quarter. Neither returned.
Things started to unravel from there, the Valkyries holding Cooper to two points in the rest of the frame as they took a 39-24 lead into the fourth.
“It was a great environment for us to come up and play here. Playing against a loud cheering section. We just kept our composure and didn’t panic when it got down to four. Our defense was really, really good,” Valkyries coach Donna Moir said.
The lead blossomed to as big as 17 in the fourth, but Cooper’s resiliency showed as they were able to get things back to single-digits with a Knox 3-pointer with 2:18 to play, making it 46-37.
Angelina Pelayo, who finished with a game-high 17 points, helped shut the door from there with a bucket followed by two Reagan Bender layups, the second on a sweet behind the back pass in transition from ZaKiyah Johnson with under a minute remaining.
Cooper was paced by Liz Freihofer’s 15 points, Knox following with 11.
Things don’t get any easier for the Jaguars, Purcell Marian, one of the top ranked teams in Ohio, up next on Tuesday on the road.
“The run that we went on last year, we feel that we’re ready to definitely have a difficult schedule. We talk about it all the time, I’m not concerned about win-loss. That doesn’t fall on anybody but me. I want to make sure our girls are ready for postseason,” Holthaus said. “So you try to get out and you try to play the best teams that you can and make sure you give your girls the most opportunities to get a lot of different looks. That way when postseason comes we’re ready for those situations.”
Friday’s matchup was a rematch of last year’s Sweet 16 semifinal contest at Rupp Arena, a 50-29 Sacred Heart victory in March.
Fast forward about nine months and Cooper showed they can continue to compete with the state’s elite.
“I thought we had some more opportunities to score tonight compared to the state semifinal game where we were very limited. We were doing a lot on the perimeter and things like that. I thought we did a pretty good job of getting downhill and creating some shots tonight. It’s progression,” Holthaus said.
After Pelayo’s 17, Triniti Ralston added 14 hitting some tough buckets in the Valkyries third quarter run, Johnson following with 11, Bender with eight.
Sacred Heart plays at Highlands Latin on Tuesday.
