The trail blazers continued their path in history once again leading from start to finish in a second state tournament win in just their second game ever on the grand stage.
It only took seven seconds longer than the first game. But the 9th Region champion Cooper Jaguars (25-9 overall) scored the game’s first 12 points and never looked back in a 55-47 state quarterfinal win over the 4th Region champion Bowling Green Purples (29-8) on Friday at Rupp Arena in Lexington.
“It was an unbelievable game from start to finish,” said Justin Holthaus, Cooper Head Coach. “Obviously, we got out to a roll at the beginning of the game. We knew Bowling Green’s well-coached. Their physicality, just their length and their strength would make it a test for that full 32 minutes. Credit to our kids again in their resiliency, toughness and fight. They mixed some things up with how they were guarding our girls. Handling that pressure definitely gave us that win.”
Cooper has been tied for a total of two minutes, 39 seconds before scoring the first points of each game. They’d scored the first seven points of the game in the first round win over Pikeville.
“It was a war out there,” said Calvin Head, Bowling Green Head Coach. “Cooper is a really, really good basketball team. (They’re) great defensively, very physical. I thought we got off to a slow start, dug ourself a hole and just couldn’t come out of it. Every time we got close, they would make a big play to turn the momentum. We battled foul trouble the entire time. But they kept fighting, scrapping, clawing doing everything they could do to give themselves an opportunity. If you’re going to lose one at Rupp, that’s the way to lose one – going down fighting so I’m extremely proud of them.”
The Jaguars face the defending state champion Louisville Sacred Heart Valkyries (34-3) in the state semifinals Saturday at 1:30 p.m. The winner plays in the state championship game hours later at 7 p.m.
Sophomore guard Liz Freihofer led the Cooper charge with 20 points scoring 16 in the first half making all six shots and 8 of 9 free throws to go with four rebounds, three assists and just one turnover. Junior guard Whitney Lind followed with 19 points making 5 of 11 shots and 8 of 14 free throws to go with seven rebounds, one assist and one blocked shot. Even though Bowling Green tried to take them away, junior guard Kay Friehofer followed her sister scoring 11 points making 3 of 8 shots to go with five rebounds, one assist and one steal.
Every free throw made a difference in this game. Cooper made 23 of 35 for 66 percent and Bowling Green made 20 of 32 for 63 percent.
Both teams had to rely on tough drives to the basket against heavy pressure because neither shot well from outside making for a physical game. Cooper made 15 of 36 shots for 42 percent including just 2 of 13 three-point tries for 15 percent and Bowling Green hit 13 of 34 shots for 38 percent including 1 of 9 three-point tries for 11 percent.
“That’s the fun thing about this group,” Holthaus said. “We’re a special team. We have talent and things like that. They’re just humble. They’re great kids. It carries over to things that we do. They have fun in the locker room after games and it’s special.”
Bowling Green committed 26 fouls to 20 for Cooper. The Purples saw three starters foul out. One non-starter fouled out for the Jaguars.
“I feel like they’re just really aggressive,” said Emma Huskey, Bowling Green senior point guard. “We just had to continue to do what we do on the offensive end of the floor. We had to push through.”
Bowling Green saw two players reach double figures. Junior guard Tanaya Bailey scored 17 before fouling out and senior center LynKaylah James scored 11 before fouling out.
Cooper won the rebounding battle, 29-25 including an 8-6 advantage on the offensive glass outscoring Bowling Green, 11-6 in second-chance points. Sophomore guard/forward Logan Palmer followed Lind with six. The fifth stater for Cooper is the lone senior in guard Jesse Palmer.
“We had to outhustle them and get to every loose ball. We had to outrebound them,” Liz Freihofer said. “That what we did and I think that’s how we pulled it out.”
Cooper also had eight assists, 14 turnovers, two blocked shots and two steals. Bowling Green had five assists, 13 turnovers, four blocked shots and six steals. Junior point guard Saniyah Shelton had two steals to lead the Purples and junior small forward Meadow Tisdale had two blocked shots to go with seven points.
“It really helps having my sister out there,” Kay Friehofer said. “Obviously, I’ve played with her my whole life. But I’ve also played with Whitney, Logan and Jesse since we were in third grade so I feel like we all connect really well. We all trust each other. That’s one of our values here with this program. We trust our coaches. Our coaches always have our backs. They always have us prepared for everything.”
Kay Freihofer followed two free throws from Liz Freihofer with a triple from the right wing. Lind made a three from the right corner to extend the lead to 10-0 before she found Liz Freihofer for a jumper for that 12-0 lead.
“We got some transition buckets and things like that,” Holthaus said. “Obviously when you’re playing with the lead, you feel more relaxed, a bit more comfortable. We know defensively each night, that’s going to give us the best chance to win. Now you’re taking a bit more pressure off your defense. Now you can be a little bit more in control and kind of dictate what you want to do on that defensive end as well.”
Tisdale scored Bowling Green’s first points with 2:26 left in the first quarter. Liz Freihofer made two free throws with 2:10 left in the quarter before the Purples scored four straight in the final two minutes to trim the lead to 14-6.
Bowling Green made some adjustments and cut the lead to 14-10 with 6:11 left in the first half. But Liz Freihofer and Logan Palmer made two free throws each to increase the lead to 20-12.
Bowling Green trimmed the lead to five twice including 22-17 with 1:47 to go after two Shelton free throws. Bailey had to be helped off the court with 1:59 left in the first half. But she returned in the second half.
“I was hurting. But I didn’t want to let my team down,” Bailey said. “This is something we’ve been working for all year and it’s something that we wanted to accomplish as a team. So I felt like I had to go out and do what I had to do to help my team out.”
Liz Freihofer scored twice down the stretch for Cooper. She made a lay-up from the left side with two seconds left to give the Jaguars a 26-17 halftime lead.
Cooper tried to put Bowling Green away to start the third quarter. Lind made a jumper and three-point play to give the Jaguars a 31-19 lead. She had another one with 44.3 seconds left in the third quarter to put Cooper up 38-26 before Bowling Green trimmed the margin to 38-30 entering the fourth quarter.
“I think as upperclassmen, we’re really starting to take care of the ball,” Lind said. “We have two really good point guards in Kay and Liz (Freihofer) and we can trust them to get the ball up the court. So when you can do that, you know when the ball is in their hands, good things are going to happen. You can keep leads. You can keep momentum and go on runs.”
Bowling Green trimmed the lead to 39-36 with 6:45 left in the game after a Bailey score. But seventh-grade guard Haylee Noel recorded a three-point play to put Cooper back up 42-36.
“We had some line-ups on the floor that we hadn’t had on the floor all year,” Head said. “JaSiyah (Franklin) as a sophomore played huge for us. But we couldn’t get into that offensive rhythm like we wanted to. We were one or two rebounds away from really changing the game and maybe swinging the momentum all the way to us.”
The Purples did trim the lead to four before a Liz Freihofer three-point play on an offensive rebound put Cooper back up 45-38 with 5:28 left in the game. Bowling Green cut it to 45-41 with 4:38 left before Lind responded with a lay-in in the paint.
James scored five in a row to trim the Cooper lead to 50-47 with 1:13 left in the game. But Bowling Green did not score the rest of the way. Cooper made 5 of 10 free throw’s in the game’s final minute to make the final score.
Scouting the Valkyries:
Sacred Heart pulled away from George Rogers Clark in the second half for a 59-40 win. The Valkyries forced 21 GRC turnovers outscoring the the Cardinals, 27-7 off those turnovers. Sacred Heart had 12 turnovers for the game.
Sacred Heart saw two players score in double digits in junior guard Triniti Ralston with 22 and freshman forward/guard ZaKiyah Johnson with 18. Johnson came into the game leading Sacred Heart averaging 17.8 points per game and sophomore forward/guard Reagan Bender averaged 11.6.
The Valkyries went 3-0 against the 9th Region. They beat Notre Dame twice and came to Ryle and won 72-56 on Feb. 16.
KHSAA Sweet 16 Girls Basketball Tournament Schedule at Rupp Arena:
Wednesday, March 9 First Round:
Meade County 53, Boyd County 46
Bullitt East 67, Bardstown Bethlehem 50
Southwestern 67, McCracken County 56
Franklin County 46, Henderson County 43
Thursday, March 10 First Round:
Bowling Green 58, Letcher County Central 45
Cooper 57, Pikeville 37
George Rogers Clark 42, Corbin 35
Sacred Heart 48, Anderson County 38
Friday, March 11 Quarterfinals:
Southwestern 47, Franklin County 40
Bullitt East 62, Meade County 47
Cooper 55, Bowling Green 47
Sacred Heart 59, George Rogers Clark 40
Saturday, March 12 Semifinals:
Southwestern (27-7) vs. Bullitt East (32-4), 11 a.m.
Cooper (25-9) vs Sacred Heart (34-3), 1:30 p.m.
Saturday, March 12 Title Game:
Semifinal winners, 7 p.m.
