Four starters graduated, all four of them next level players.
Doesn’t matter, the beat goes on off Longbranch Road in Union. The Cooper girls basketball team might be the biggest story on the hardwood in Northern Kentucky this year.
The thing is for Cooper, Justin Holthaus, his staff and the players in that locker room, this is the expectation. They entered the season not worried about what they lost, they’ve shown it too, the latest a 61-39 thumping of Dixie Heights. The Colonels are a team expected to contend with Cooper for a 9th Region title, on Thursday, Cooper showed they’re currently a step above.
“Thought we matched up well coming into the game, just similar size and kind of how we play the game,” Jaguars coach Justin Holthaus said. “We really wanted to try to limit a lot of their 3-point shooting because they shoot it at a high level. I think our girls did a pretty good job doing that.”
It was a Jaguar feast from the tip, scoring the game’s first eight points and leading by double-digits from near the end of the first quarter on to the rest of the game.
The one Cooper starter that did return from last year’s team? Haylee Noel. She dropped a cool 30 points on just 15 shots and secured her 500th career rebound in the game in the process.
“It’s definitely been a challenging role, but coach is just setting me to a high standard and I feel like that changed me as a person on the court and off the court,” Noel said. “It just makes me a better player.”
Noel got to her spots, whether if it was a 3-pointer, pull-up, getting to the rim, second-chance points or at the free throw line. The full arsenal was on display.
“Sharing the ball. Our transition and just looking for that open shot and just being confident to shoot the ball and score at the rim,” Noel said.
Noel talked a lot about leadership in the postgame interview, she’s more than provided it.
“She got to follow a lot of really, really special kids in our program and kind of see how to do it the right way and how to approach your teammates, how to talk to your teammates and how to approach practice and games and stuff like that,” Holthaus said. “The beginning of the season she put a lot on herself, but she’s done an unbelievable job where she’s played enough games now where she kind of knows what she’s gonna get and she’s been a really good teammate.”
PHOTOS: Cooper-Dixie Heights slideshow below (provided by Charles Bolton)
She was joined in double figures by Zene Thompson and Addison Brissey with 12 points each. Brissey helped ignite the offense with nine points in the first quarter, Thompson helping Cooper separate in the second half even more with eight points in the fourth.
Cooper now sits at 19-4, three of those losses to Sacred Heart, Purcell-Marian (Ohio) and Franklin County. Sacred Heart is the four-time reigning state champion, Purcell has won back-to-back state titles in Ohio while Franklin is ranked No. 4 in the state. The other loss was to Holy Cross, the Indians ending the Jaguars 9th Region winning streak at 33 games back in December.
“When we talk to the kids we don’t talk about what we’ve lost,” Holthaus said. “We’re happy with what we’ve done in the past, but it’s all about the kids that we have in the locker room and it’s their chance. I was talking to Joel (Steczynski) earlier today and he told me he knew we were going to be good because the kids we have now got to practice against those past players every day in practice. To see these younger girls step up in that spotlight and get their name recognized a little bit more with all the effort they’ve put in says a lot about our kids.”
Cooper continues their gauntlet of a schedule on Tuesday in Lexington against Frederick Douglass before another bus trip, the last one to Louisville to play at Assumption to close out the regular season.
As for Dixie (15-8), Thursday gave them a sour taste in their mouth for a team they’re most likely going to have to beat in the 9th Region tournament to try and get to Rupp. Coach Joel Steczynski thinks it’s good they got to see the Jaguars before tourney time.
“Their physicality is just different, we have to be able to match it,” Steczynski said. “It helps to see a team twice. For example Notre Dame, we saw them Dec. 13 and then again on Jan. 3. We lost to them the first time and then beat them. Cooper is a tough matchup for us right now and we have three weeks to figure it out if we see them again.”
Not much went right for the Colonels in the contest, they struggled to corral 50-50 balls, gave up a lot of offensive rebounds and committed a lot of turnovers. They trailed 21-8 after one, 32-18 at halftime and 44-22 after three.
They were led by Coralee Pelfrey and Catherine Buddenberg with 12 points each. They’ll get back to the drawing board and host Villa Madonna on Friday before closing out the regular season next week against Scott and Franklin County.
“We’re counting down how many days we have to get better,” Steczynski said. “We’re running out of days to do that, so we talk about how many practices we have left to get better. If we can’t get better every single practice, it’s going to be a struggle. If we can get better every single day we practice in, I don’t think it will be a problem to get our girls recalibrated for the postseason.”