Maybe it was the near miss for the All “A” state title in volleyball or the one-point loss in the All “A” basketball state semifinals last season.
None of that crossed Holy Cross senior Julia Hunt’s mind.
Headed to the line with six seconds left with the All “A” state championship on the line and a two-point lead, Hunt approached the moment like any other time.
“Keep everything the same. I just try to stay confident and not let anything in my head. If I can just be confident instead of being nervous then nothing really bothers me,” Hunt said.
Hunt’s free throws clinched the championship for the Indians at Eastern Kentucky University’s Alumni Coliseum, defeating Bethlehem 65-61 to win the program’s second small school title in program history.
Hunt would finish with 21 points, 19 rebounds and eight blocked shots, awarded the tournament MVP after the game.
“She’s special. There’s no other way around it. She’s just one of those special kids that has ‘it’. And everyone says what is ‘it’? Nobody knows what ‘it’ is, but she has ‘it’,” Arlinghaus said. “Playing high level volleyball, she’s been in pressure packed situations so these moments don’t faze her.”
The Banshees (17-7) were able to trim a 50-37 deficit all the way to two points, but the Indians hit 9-of-10 free throw attempts in the fourth to hold off the charge and seal the deal.
After arriving in Richmond Tuesday night, the Indians (21-5) journey started on Wednesday with a win over Leslie County in the first round after claiming the Ninth Region All “A” title a few weeks ago. They followed the first round win with avenging a loss to Owen County in the quarterfinals on Friday, the same team that ended their All “A” run in the semifinals on the same floor last season.
“Last year was a very emotional locker room after the game. We’ve literally been thinking about this day since last year. It’s one year to the day. One year to the day that we lost last year. And so it only feels fitting that we had to go through Owen County to get here,” Arlinghaus said.
Then came a defensive display of near perfection, suffocating Pikeville in the semis before taking down the Banshees on Sunday, a team that had won two of the last three titles.
The size advantage for the Indians was evident, a Bethlehem team that implemented four guards at all times. Holy Cross laid the groundwork early by dominating the paint in the first half. In building their 25-22 lead by the break, 20 of their points came in the paint and holding a 14-2 edge on second chance points.
An 8-0 run out of the half extended the Holy Cross lead to 11 as Hunt dominated the third quarter in scoring nine points, grabbing multiple rebounds and blocking a couple shots.
A Nejai Lewis layup made it 50-37 in the early stages of the fourth, Lewis the aggressor as she hit 9-of-10 shots on the day, scoring 20 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. Lewis didn’t get to experience the All “A” last year when she was at Holmes.
“Even not being here last year I knew how much they wanted this,” Lewis said.
Bethlehem followed with a 11-4 run to make it 54-48 with under four minutes to play, continuing to chip away as a Carlie Thurmond triple made it 63-61 with 7.6 seconds remaining.
Often as she is, Hunt was a big target off the press inbounds pass to relieve some pressure. After securing the pass, Hunt was immediately fouled with six seconds to go.
“Good thing she didn’t miss or we would have had practice tomorrow,” Arlinghaus joked.
Hunt is committed to University of Washington for volleyball, the junior standout being in big moments before.
Holy Cross held a 42-18 advantage in points in the paint and 25-13 in seconds chance points. The Indians bench outscored Bethlehem’s 12-0.
“We were able to spread the wealth and they really sacrificed for each other. We had some new girls come in this year and some of these girls have sacrificed this year. They’ve sacrificed opportunities because we knew we had one goal as a team. We wanted to win regional and state championships and we were able to do that today because they were able to stick to that goal,” Arlinghaus said.
Holy Cross now has three weeks left in the regular season with four regular season games left before the 35th District starts the week of February 20.
BETHLEHEM — 14-8-12-27 — 61
HOLY CROSS — 17-8-19-21 — 65
Bethlehem (61) – Thurmond 25, Filitreau 20, T. Miles 10, A. Miles 5, Clayton 1
Holy Cross (65) – Hunt 21, Lewis 20, Hayes 7, Williams 6, Wimzie 5, Nelson 3, Bottom 3
