Playing like a team that’s been here for four straight years, Cooper’s girls basketball team rolled in their Clark’s Pump-N-Shop girls’ Sweet 16 first round opener over Mercy.
The red and yellow Jaguars spread it around among their starting five, playing unselfish basketball in a 70-45 victory over the blue and white Jaguars on Thursday afternoon at Rupp Arena in Lexington.
How about this for the Cooper starting five?
Haylee Noel 24 points, 11 rebounds and five assists, Addyson Brissey 17 points and nine rebounds, Alivia Scott 10 points, eight rebounds and five assists, Brinkli Rankin nine points and four rebounds and Zene Thompson seven points, three rebounds and three assists.
“Just the trust in all of us we had,” Noel said. “Our ball pressure helped us set up our offense and then moving the ball and passing and keeping that up for the whole game, that’s how we won this game.”
The starting five certainly filled the stat sheet, finishing with 15 assists on 26 made baskets while shooting 55%.
“I think it’s really the identity of our program,” Cooper coach Justin Holthaus said. “Over the last couple of years, we don’t have kids that need shots. They’ll take the shots if they’re there, but we have kids that are unselfish, they’re going to share the ball and they’re going to make the right play more times than none.”
Opening quarters strong fueled Cooper. They opened the first up 10-0, the second 13-0 and the third 12-2.
Mercy stayed in it the first half due to closing quarters strong. They finished the first on a 11-4 run to get within 14-11 and 7-0 in the second trailing 27-18 at halftime.
“I thought that game was a lot of runs,” Holthaus said. “We get on a roll, score six, eight straight. Same thing with Mercy. They did a really good job of changing up their defenses and how they’re guarding us on certain personnel and things like that. But as the game wore on, I feel like we really got in a rhythm.”
Cooper’s 12-2 run out of halftime pretty much sealed the deal from there. It gave them a 41-20 edge, Mercy unable to get any closer than 19 from that point.
It’s the third time in four seasons Cooper has won at least one state tournament game, avenging their lone first round loss in 2023 to Mercy.
Now they get the team they, or anyone, has been able to get by the past four years, Sacred Heart. It’s the third time Cooper will face the Valkyries in the state tournament over the past four seasons and the seventh head-to-head matchup since their 2022 state semifinal meeting.
“With Sacred Heart, it’s one of those things where they do a lot of things really well,” Holthaus said. “What you can’t do against Sacred Heart is you can’t get yourself in a hole because they guard so well. When you get yourself in a double-digit hole there, it’s very tough to get yourself out of it. We’ll continue focusing on different matchups and how we guard them and change a few things. When we played them earlier in the year, I don’t think we shot it as well. Hopefully tomorrow we’re able to push the situation a little bit and hit some jump shots.”
Sacred Heart won the first meeting, 60-49 back on Jan. 3. Friday’s quarterfinal is set for 8:30 p.m., back at Rupp Arena.
COOPER 70, MERCY 45
COOPER — 14-13-22-21 — 70
MERCY –11-7-9-18 — 45
Scoring
Cooper (70) — Noel 24, Brissey 17, Scott 10, Rankin 9, Thompson 7, Cooper 2, Hooper 1
Mercy (45) — Becker 12, Young 10, Reitzel 6, O’Bryan 6, O’Connell 4, Shaw 3, McCauley 3, Wolz 1
Game Stats
Field Goals: Cooper 26/47, Mercy 14/48
3-Pointers: Cooper 9/19, Mercy 7/23
Free Throws: Cooper 9/18, Mercy 10/19
Rebounds: Cooper 40, Mercy 23
Assists: Cooper 15, Mercy 8
Steals: Cooper 4, Mercy 10
Blocked Shots: Cooper 3, Mercy 1
Turnovers: Cooper 19, Mercy 14
Records: Cooper 26-5, Mercy 19-15