Only one Ninth Region team came within single-digits of the favored Cooper Jaguars girls basketball team (26-3) during the regular season.
The Ryle Raiders (22-8) had their chances until the end in a 63-58 defeat on Jan. 13 at Cooper. The two met again Thursday for the 33rd District championship on the same floor Cooper beating its Union rivals, 61-48 for the fourth straight meeting.
Cooper built a double-digit 32-21 halftime lead ending the second quarter on a 11-2 run. Then after Ryle cut the margin to four to start the second half, the Jaguars counterpunched their way back to a double-digit lead after three at 43-31 and the Raiders did not come any closer than 10 in the fourth quarter.
“It was kind of like our game back in January,” said Justin Holthaus, Cooper head coach. “We were up 12 or 13. But we knew Ryle wasn’t going to back down. But our girls responded. We had some big plays from leadership in our program. It was a total team effort again.”
The Jaguars put three players in double figures and had precise free throw shooting, making 17-of-19 attempts. Junior guard Liz Freihofer led the way with 21 points and hitting 9-of-10 in the fourth quarter.
Junior forward Logan Palmer fell to the floor in the fourth quarter after taking a shot near her nose. But she finished with 13 points, senior forward Whitney Lind scoring 12.
“They’re counting on me when I’m in there and I’m counting on them when I go out,” Palmer said. “When I come back in, they’re like, ‘Okay. She needs to be back.’ We just count on each other. I feel like we just have to stay together. We know what we have to do and how to do it. We just have to take a deep breath and get it done.”
Eighth grade guard Haylee Noel gave the Jaguars a lift from the outside in the second half making two three-pointers on her way to eight points. Noel came into the game in the first quarter after junior guard Maleah Alexander picked up her second foul.
“It’s great that we have that depth on the team,” Noel said. “We’ve just matured and come together more.”
Senior guard Kay Freihofer scored all seven of her points in the second quarter. She hit a three then put in an offensive rebound during Cooper’s 7-0 run to end the first half.
Cooper held Ryle’s two leading scorers in senior guard Abby Holtman and junior forward Quinn Eubank below their averages. Holtman and Eubank came in averaging 15.9 and 14.4 points per game respectively. Eubank scored eight and Holtman had four. Kay Freihofer primarily guarded Holtman.
“It all starts with our defense and obviously, a team’s leading scorer draws more attention, especially with Holtman being a solid outside shooter,” Holthaus said. “We want to make sure she doesn’t get any easy looks, always there on the catch. I thought our defensive pressure was pretty good. We created some turnovers and things like that.”
The other three Ryle starters tried to pick up the slack. Junior center Sarah Baker scored 15 with freshman small forward Jaelyn Jones making two threes on her way to 10 points and senior guard Austin Johnson scoring nine.
“I think the thing that got us is we were playing defense more than offense,” Baker said. “When we take our time and play together passing the ball with each other, we’re so hard to beat. I think if we get that in our heads, we’re going to be fine.”
Ryle held an early 4-2 lead after a Johnson score. But the Jaguars took the lead for good at 6-4 after a Lind steal and score near the basket. Lind added an offensive putback and jumper to give Cooper a 10-4 lead. The teams exchanged baskets the rest of the quarter with Cooper leading 17-13 after one.
“They took the shots we wanted to take,” said Katie Haitz, Ryle head coach. “The problem is we gave them way too many offensive rebounds and they got the 50/50 balls. When you’re doing that, that makes it a lot harder. We dug ourselves a hole in many different ways. We got turnovers some there in the second half, but made some bad decisions with the ball. They capitalize on those things.”
Eubank and Johnson hit two free throws each to trim the Jaguars led to 21-19. But a Kay Freihofer offensive rebound and Lind score gave the Jaguars a 25-19 advantage.
Then following a Baker score, Cooper finished the quarter with seven straight. Palmer finished it with a lay-up with 1:24 let in the half to put the Jaguars up 32-21.
“I thought we did a good job of feeding (Baker) and being able to get her involved,” Haitz said. “When we did, it really helped us be able to spread it out. Sarah’s very smart. When they tried to double her, she did a good job getting the ball to the open player. We just didn’t capitalize on those things.”
Jones spearheaded the Ryle run to open the quarter with a three and lay-up to make it 32-28 Cooper. The Jaguars responded with their 7-0 run with Liz Freihofer making two free throws and a lay-up to push it back to 39-28. Ryle cut it to nine twice after that. But Noel hit a three with 43 seconds left to give Cooper a 43-31 lead entering the fourth quarter.
The huge lead let Cooper spread out the floor in a four-corner look and take only good shots. Ryle cut the lead to 10 twice including 50-40 with about four minutes left after a Baker score. But the Jaguars responded with another 7-0 run to put the game away.
“It’s super helpful having a bunch of guards out there that can handle the pressure because in those tight situations, we know they’re going to bring a bunch of pressure and try to get steals,” Liz Freihofer said. “But we all are confident in each other that we can make the next pass, take care of the ball, get to the free-throw line and hit them.”
The teams will know who they face Sunday in the Ninth Region Tournament at Truist Arena with the drawing taking place at Holmes on Friday at 4 p.m. Cooper takes on Newport Central Catholic, St. Henry or Holy Cross. Ryle takes on Highlands, Notre Dame or Dixie Heights.