The 9th Region Girls Basketball Tournament title game Friday will feature one that has been there a number of times in recent years against a trailblazing team that happens to be located just up the road.
The two made it happen winning semifinal games. The Ryle Lady Raiders (21-9) will take on their Union rival Cooper Lady Jaguars (22-9) for the fourth time this season for the right to go to state at 7 p.m. back at BB&T Arena on the campus of Northern Kentucky University. The teams met one week ago for the 33rd District crown at Ryle. Cooper won 60-49 for the first district championship in school history.
But Ryle won both meetings during the regular season. The Lady Raiders beat the Lady Jaguars, 57-50 at Cooper on Dec. 14 and 53-49 at home Feb. 1.
Ryle is back in the region title game for the fifth time since Katie Haitz took over as head coach in 2015. The Lady Raiders won three straight titles in 2018, 2019 and 2020 and the 2019 state championship. They are back in it after losing to Notre Dame in the region semifinals last year. Haitz, a 2004 Boone County graduate, tributes that success to her time as an assistant under retired Boone County Head Coach Nell Fookes.
“We’ve played hard teams so that when we’re in these situations when things aren’t going right, we’ve been in them before,” Haitz said. “They’re used to changing things. They’re used to me throwing things at them differently as to what’s going on based on what’s being successful. I think that’s really helped with our success. You have to have talent and all that too. I’m not taking that away. I learned early that if you want to be in those situations, you have to put them in those situations.”
Cooper is making just its second region tournament final appearance in its three appearances in the region tournament. The Lady Jaguars lost to Holmes in the 2017 region title game and at Dixie Heights in the region quarterfinals last year in Head Coach Justin Holthaus’ first season with the program. Cooper has won nine in a row.
“We’ll come in (Thursday). We won’t beat them up too much,” Holthaus said. “It’s going to be more of just talking through some things and some adjustments since we last played them. They’re a good team too. They have some nice pieces on their side. We’re going to do our best to try to take some of those pieces away. On offensive, we’ll try to clean some things up.”
Ryle 62, Newport Central Catholic 40:
The Lady Raiders heard all week how they should win this one big. But they had to block out the noise and prove it on the court. They did that putting the game away in the third quarter against the 36th District champion Thoroughbreds (22-11).
“We kind of came out a little rough and then we had to pick it up because everyone wants to get to the finals,” said Quinn Eubank, Ryle sophomore forward. “We understood that we had to get through this as a team to get a win.”
Eubank scored 12 points in the cause and nearly had a double-double recording nine rebounds to go with three blocked shots, four assists and two steals. But Ryle displayed its usual balance making 24 of 57 shots for 42 percent including 7 of 16 three-point tries for 44 percent and all seven free throws. Junior guard Abby Holtman continued her torrid pace scoring 25 making 4 of 8 three-point tries to go with four rebounds and four steals.
Junior guard Austin Johnson scored eight points to go with seven rebounds, two assists and two steals for Ryle. Sophomore 6-foot-2-inch center Sarah Baker helped Ryle win the rebounding battle, 43-26 grabbing eight to go with six points. The Lady Raiders had 13 second-chance points to six for NewCath to go with 16 fouls and four blocked shots.
Ryle had 1.19 points per possession and 1.03 points per shot to .77 and .75 for NewCath. Both teams had 12 turnovers. Ryle had 10 steals to six for NewCath. But the Lady Raiders outscored the Thoroughbreds, 21-6 off those turnovers. Ryle also had 35 defensive stops to 25 for NewCath.
Ryle also had 17 assists to six for NewCath. That’s where junior guard Meredith Snider often comes in for the Lady Raiders. She had three assists.
Ryle moved to 13-1 at the BB&T Arena and 14-2 overall in 9th Region games under Haitz’ guidance. The only other year the Lady Raiders did not make it this far under Haitz is 2017 when they missed the region tournament.
NewCath senior guard Rylee Turner finished her outstanding career scoring 30 points making 10 of 22 shots and 10 of 11 free throws. She also had eight rebounds, three blocked shots, one steal and one assist. But no one else scored more than three for the Thoroughbreds.
“(Turner) did a great job,” Haitz said. “She moved well without the ball and with the ball. She scored on the drive and we weren’t stopping it. The one thing I thought worked well is our adjustments on the defensive side. That pushed the ball on the offensive side, got us some transition layups and got more movement.”
The Thoroughbreds made 13 of 46 shots for 28 percent including 2 of 22 from three-point range for nine percent and 12 of 15 free throws for 80 percent. NewCath also had eight fouls and four blocked shots.
“I’m just proud of their effort,” said Ralph Meyer, NewCath Head Coach. “They knew we were going to have to be really, really good (Wednesday) to beat a quality opponent in Ryle, who I think is one of the top teams in the state. They have a little bit of everything. They have size. They have shooters. They’re well-coached. I thought we battled for the first 13 minutes for sure. We were right there. We went toe-to-toe.”
The game stayed tight in the first quarter. Turner recorded an offensive rebound with two seconds left to put NewCath up 11-9 after the first quarter.
“In the first quarter on offense, there was no intensity,” Haitz said. “There was no push. I was proud of the way that our bench came in. We had (senior guard) Lele (Nguyen) come in, (sophomore guard) Gracie (Carrigan), even (Eighth grade small forward) Jaelyn (Jones) when we had to put her in there at times did a great job of creating that intensity for us and helping us get the lead.”
But after trading baskets to open the second quarter, Ryle extended the lead to five at 18-13 when Snider and Holtman drained consecutive threes. Turner had another score with 3:29 left in the first half to trim the Ryle lead to 22-19.
But a series of NewCath turnovers let Ryle go on a 12-3 run to end the first half and go up 34-22 at halftime. Eubank had three scores and an assist when Ryle scored 10 straight.
“We’ve been working on that all year. That’s been the main focus,” Snider said. “Defense obviously wins championships. We love doing it. It’s great to switch things up on (opponents).”
Eaglin made a triple from the top of the key to stop the run. But Baker hit a jumper from the right side to make the halftime score for Ryle with 1:03 left in the half.
Ryle continued to extend the lead in the third quarter winning it 16-5 to go up 50-27 entering the fourth quarter. NewCath had one field goal in that quarter.
The largest lead Ryle held in the fourth quarter came 55-29 with 5:08 left in the game when Holtman made two free throws. NewCath did trim it to 59-40 with 33 seconds left before Ryle eighth grade small forward Jaelyn Jones made a three to make the final score.
NewCath graduates five seniors off the team. They are Turner, forwards Ellie Kramer, Amaya Fillhardt, guard Jaylin Honokomp and Ella Meyer.
“You try to calm them at a timeout,” Coach Meyer said. “The bottom line is there were two keys I thought were going to be very important for us. They were valuing the basketball against the defensive pressure Ryle was going to throw at us and defensive rebounding. At times, we struggled with them.”
The Thoroughbreds made it to the semifinals for the first time since 2015. They also won their first 36th District Tournament championship since 2014.
Cooper 54, Dixie Heights 42:
The Lady Jaguars (22-9) knocked out the defending region champion Colonels (25-8) with the solid defense displayed all postseason. They limited the Colonels to just 2 of 4 three-point tries.
Junior guard Ella Steczynski scored nine points Sunday in the region quarterfinals against Highlands on three three-pointers. But she had just one against Cooper. It came 10 seconds into the second half to pull Dixie Heights within two at 29-27.
“I think that was a testament to the girls sticking to the game plan,” Holthaus said. “Those were few and far between where they were getting open jump shots.”
But the Colonels came no closer the rest of the way. Dixie Heights did not hit another field goal until sophomore guard Jalynn Brooks scored with 2:35 left in the game for a span of 13 minutes, five seconds.
“We take a lot of pride in our defense,” said Kay Freihofer, Cooper junior guard. “One-on-one, we try not to get beat. But we also try to always have each others’ gaps. That’s how we win a lot of games.”
Cooper wound up scoring 1.23 points per possession and 1.17 per shot to .98 and one even for Dixie Heights. The Lady Jaguars recorded 14 assists to three for the Colonels. Junior forward/guard Whitney Lind and sophomore guard Liz Freihofer led Cooper there with four each and senior guard Jesse Palmer had three.
“They’re long. They’re fast,” Dixie Heights Head Coach Joel Steczynki said of Cooper. “They protect the three. They protect the paint. They’re physical and they don’t take plays off. They’re super smart. When we weren’t finishing our mid-range (shots) or lay-ups and we were trying to do that as opposed to a kick-out, that hurt us. But that’s just great defense. I wish I could play against that kind of defense every night of the week because you get better from playing a team that plays defense like that.”
Cooper made 22 of 41 shots for 54 percent including 5 of 13 from three-point range for 39 percent and 5 of 10 free throws for 50 percent. The Lady Jaguars had 21 rebounds, 14 fouls, seven turnovers, three blocked shots and four steals.
Lind led Cooper with 16 points and nine rebounds for a near double-double. Kay Freihofer followed with 15 and sister Liz Freihofer scored 11. Sophomore guard/forward Logan Palmer added eight.
“What we’re able to do offensively with different things with some different pieces, I feel we’re very versatile,” Holthaus said. “We have some guards that can post and spread you out a little bit. It’s all on the girls continuing to believe. This ride has been special. We have a very excited locker room. But we have a very big test Friday.”
Cooper did receive some important minutes off the bench. Sophomore guard Maleah Alexander had a critical fast-break score with 46.3 seconds left in the third quarter to put Cooper up 41-31.
“It’s all 15 of us on the floor. It’s not just the starting five,” Alexander said. “We all have a unique role to play and we’re all super important to this team. Coach (Holthaus) makes a huge emphasis on that. We make sure that we’re here for each other no matter what.”
Dixie Heights made 13 of 33 shots for 39 percent and 14 of 18 free throws for 78 percent. The Colonels also had 24 rebounds, 13 fouls, nine turnovers, three blocked shots and three steals.
Junior guard Samantha Berman led Dixie Heights with 13 points and senior forward Madelyn Lawson finished her outstanding career with 12 and 11 rebounds for a double-double to go with three blocked shots. Freshman guard Catherine Buddenberg tried to keep Dixie Heights in it with nine points. Berman also had eight rebounds.
Cooper scored the game’s first six points. But following a timeout, Dixie Heights clawed back in it. A Buddenberg three-point play cut the Cooper lead to 14-13 after the first quarter.
Dixie Heights tied the game twice and took two leads including a 24-23 margin with 1:50 left in the first half after a Lawson lay-up. But Lind and Logan Palmer connected on consecutive threes to give Cooper the lead for good at 29-24 at halftime.
Kay Freihofer responded to Ella Steczynski’s three with a jumper and Lind made a triple to push the Cooper to seven at 34-27 with 6:45 left in the third quarter. Dixie Heights cut it to six twice including 37-31 with 1:47 left in the quarter after two Buddenberg free throws. Cooper led 41-33 entering the fourth quarter after Berman made two free throws drawing a foul on an offensive rebound.
Cooper gradually pulled away keeping Dixie Heights off the scoreboard until Brooks’ bucket with 2:35 left in the game. The Lady Jaguars led 48-33 after a Logan Palmer score with 2:57 left in the game. A Liz Freihofer score with 2:16 left equaled Cooper’s largest lead at 50-35. The closest Dixie Heights came the rest of the game was 11 points twice.
Lawson is the only senior for Dixie Heights. Coach Steczynski has not forgotten the Colonels have recorded 19 or more wins in each of the past five seasons.
“(Lawson) was part of changing the program,” Steczynski said. “Prior to my first year coaching and her coming here, I don’t know that Dixie had back-to-back 20-win seasons. That’s a pretty big deal.”
Dixie Heights has been to the region semifinals each of those years. Last year’s region crown marked the first for the Colonels since 1992.
8th Region Boys Tournament Quarterfinals:
North Oldham 79, Walton-Verona 46:
The Bearcats (19-11) could not get on track against the Mustangs (16-12) in the quarterfinals at Henry County seeing the end of their season and eight-game winning streak. They trailed 44-19 at halftime.
Brant Smithers led Walton-Verona with 12 points and Cam Christy scored nine. The Bearcats graduate seven including those two. The other five are Brady Cook, Trey Ferguson, Tanner Thornberry, Ethan Gutman and Nolan Art.
9th Region Girls Tournament Schedule at BB&T Arena at NKU:
Quarterfinal Results on Sunday, Feb. 27:
Ryle 53, Notre Dame 51
Newport Central Catholic 55, Ludlow 42
Dixie Heights 58, Highlands 40
Cooper 59, Holy Cross 46
Semifinals on Wednesday, March 2:
Ryle 62, Newport Central Catholic 40
Cooper 54, Dixie Heights 42
Championship Game on Friday, March 4:
Ryle (21-9) vs. Cooper (22-9), 7 p.m.
8th Region Boys Tournament at Henry County:
Quarterfinals on Wednesday, March 2:
Collins 82, Owen County 66
North Oldham 79, Walton-Verona 46
Quarterfinals on Thursday, March 3:
Oldham County (19-10) vs. Gallatin County (17-12), 6:30 p.m.
Woodford County (25-5) vs. Grant County (18-15), 8 p.m.
Semifinals on Monday, March 7:
Collins (23-6) vs. North Oldham (16-12), 6:30 p.m.
Thursday winners, 8 p.m.
Title Game on Tuesday, March 8:
Semifinal winners, 7 p.m.
