For the first time since 2021, the girls basketball 9th Region champion won’t reside from Longbranch Road in Union.
Highlands stunned Cooper on Sunday at Northern Kentucky University’s Truist Arena in the 9th Region quarterfinals.
The other three games went as expected as Notre Dame, Holy Cross and Ryle all advanced to Tuesday’s semifinals, setting up matchups between Notre Dame and Highlands and Holy Cross and Ryle.
Here’s some takeaways from Sunday’s action:
Highlands 51, Cooper 42
Highlands ends Cooper’s reign
The Bluebirds put together a solid gameplan led by coach Jaime Richey and her staff and the team went out and executed it to a T. They implemented a matchup zone on Saturday afternoon in practice and held Cooper to their second lowest point total of the season in a 51-42 victory.
“They weren’t too happy when they saw the draw and I immediately sent the girls a message and told them coaches are going to come up with a game plan, we got to execute it,” Richey said. “And they came out and executed our game plan to perfection.”
A 14-3 run in the second quarter was the key to victory in the contest. Trailing 11-9 after eight minutes, Highlands outscored Cooper by 11 in the second to take a 23-14 lead into the half.
Things continued to spiral for Cooper, coming off a 39-point loss to Ryle in the district championship on Thursday. Highlands had them doubled up at 34-17 more than midway through the third quarter before Cooper finally gained their bearings with a 13-2 run to end the quarter and get within six at 36-30.
But the energy exerted to get back into it wore Cooper down as they scored just two points in the first six minutes of the final frame, finding themselves down 46-32 before a Haylee Noel jumper made it a 12-point game. It was too late to mount a comeback as Highlands knocked down free throws and took care of the ball down the stretch to pull off the upset.
“Credit to my girls for coming out and believing in us, believing in each other and doing what we needed to do to get this win,” Richey said.
Youth movement
While the senior trio of Kaylee Mills, Katie Bucher and Avery Barber have been vital to the success for Highlands, it was an eighth grader and freshman helping pave the way to an upset.
Eighth grader Solu Nzekwu led the Bluebirds with 11 points, hitting 4-of-5 shots from the field and 3-of-3 from the free throw line. She was a big key in the second quarter run as three drives to the basket resulted in baskets and an and one. Her ability to penetrate helped open up some lanes for the Bluebirds.
“The energy was really high,” Nzekwu said. “I just wanted to keep it that way. Our team was doing really well already and I just felt like I had to keep it up.”
Freshman Bailey Richey followed with 10 points, all of them coming from the free throw line, knocking down 10-of-12 attempts. She added eight rebounds as Highlands outrebounded Cooper 31-20 in the contest.
The run is over
Cooper’s four-peat was the first time anyone has done so, boys or girls, in 9th Region history. All season long they were tabbed to do so again, but a late season meltdown started to create some skepticism.
A three-game losing streak started on Jan. 31 in losses to George Rogers Clark, Simon Kenton and Taylor County. Now all three were ranked, so it wasn’t like the sky was falling.
But then came an end of regular season loss to Assumption where they blew a 13-point fourth quarter lead and lost at the buzzer and then suffered their worst defeat in the district championship to Ryle since Jan. 7, 2020 against Highlands, both of them 39-point losses, 69-30 to Ryle and 71-32 to Highlands.
“Lack of execution, on both ends of the floor,” Cooper coach Christian Prohaska said. “It’s basketball, it happens. There’s good days and bad days and it’s an imperfect game and unfortunately, it hadn’t been going our way lately.”
Prohaska took over this season and guided Cooper to a 20-9 record. They’ll graduate two seniors in Addyson Brissey and Lyric Hooper, two starters.
Holy Cross 58, Dixie Heights 50
Jai Johnson’s defense makes a statement
Not sure anyone in the region was playing better than Dixie Heights’ Asia Carner headed into the region tournament. She was averaging 30.6 points per game over her last 10 games, including a program record and career-high 43 points against Scott on Feb. 17.
Enter Jai Johnson, the Holy Cross sophomore who was tasked with guarding Carner on the evening. Carner still finished with 22 points, but it didn’t come easy as she was 7-of-19 from the field and 2-of-6 from the 3-point line with four turnovers.
“Staying up on her,” Johnson said. “Not letting her get to her step back three, but just really staying with her and making sure she doesn’t get to the basket. I just had to make sure that I can do my best to keep the ball out of her hands and that was the goal tonight.”
Johnson leads the team in scoring at 13.5 points per game, but her defense is what made the difference in this one.
Unsung heroes
Holy Cross knows what they are going to get from their trio of Johnson, Alyssa Arlinghaus and Riley Eberhard on a nightly basis. The three combine to score over 36 points per game and are the top three rebounders on the team.
But on Sunday it was Paige Arlinghaus and Avery Sturgeon making a big difference and being X-factors. Both finished with eight points apiece, Arlinghaus adding eight rebounds and four assists while Sturgeon had three rebounds and two steals.
Both hit key baskets at vital times in the contest when Dixie Heights were mounting their runs to stay in it.
“Those were just huge, just to kind of hold off the momentum and kind of help us right the ship,” Arlinghaus said. “They’ve been doing that all year long because Jai, Riley and Alyssa get so much attention.”
Scary backcourt
The scariest backcourt in the 9th Region next season could reside in Edgewood. With Carner and Peyton Gibson, Dixie Heights has a solid foundation to start with looking ahead.
Gibson got to her spots when she needed to on Sunday and finished with 17 points and three steals.
Avoid the injury bug
The biggest bugaboo for Dixie the last two seasons have been injuries. This season alone they’ve had to deal with the loss of three key rotational pieces due to knee injuries. Coralee Pelfrey was lost before the season even began and then Aubrey Elkins and Zoe Cruey went down during the season.
Pelfrey averaged 11.5 points and 7.2 rebounds as a junior last season while Elkins was putting up five points per game in five games this season, Cruey lost after playing in just seven games.
“We’ve tried just about everything,” Colonels coach Joel Steczynski said. “We definitely take days off, it’s just crazy. It just shows the resiliency of the team, where they continue to fight and adapt and adjust and do what they have to do to keep playing, keep getting better.”
If Dixie can avoid those injuries next season, they’ll return four of five starters.
Ryle 63, Newport Central Catholic 27
Ryle stays hot
The hottest team in the region right now may just be Ryle (or Notre Dame, too). After Sunday’s running clock victory over Newport Central Catholic, they’ve now won 12 of their last 14.
They’re getting it done on the defensive end during their hot streak, allowing just 48 points per game and more than 60 just three times during that stretch.
Funneling things into 6-foot-7 Jayden McClain typically ends in positive results, McClain tallying nine blocks in Sunday night’s victory.
“Another strong defensive game for us,” Ryle coach Katie Haitz said. “Keeping them off the three point line, making them have to drive and then contending with her (McClain) in there.
McClain showing the range
While most of her work is done on the interior, McClain has been showing off the range from deep lately. She knocked down two 3-pointers in the district championship victory over Cooper and then hit two more against NewCath.
“I’m really comfortable shooting threes,” McClain said. “Since I’ve been here I don’t have that ability to do it a lot because I’m more down low and in the paint, but it’s something I’m working on. Trying to get better at it and trying to put it on the floor a little bit more, too.”
Haitz says she has free reign to keep taking them, too.
“We’re okay with her shooting them for her growth and where she wants to be and what she wants to do, she’s proven that she can hit them,” Haitz said. “She’s got a beautiful shot and the more that you can make it where they don’t think that the only thing that she can do is be down low, that’s even better for us. So I don’t mind.”
Jones early foul trouble
When Ryle’s Jaelyn Jones was in early foul trouble, others stepped up. It was a mixture of Laynee Hampton, Emerson Dowell and Gianna Cooper providing key moments as they extended their lead with the 9th Region KABC Player of the Year on the bench. Hampton had 10 points and three steals, Dowell had seven points and four rebounds and Cooper added six points and four assists.
“What I really am enjoying is that their IQ and they’re being able to have different conversations than the way that we had conversations at this time last year,” Haitz said. “That that right there tells you the growth and the trust that I’m starting to have in them.”
As for Jones? She still got hers. She tallied 16 points, hitting 7-of-11 shots from the field.
“Jaelyn was upset at herself, but she’s right in there being the leader that she needed to be and talking to them when they were coming off on the timeouts and things like that,” Haitz said.
Throwaway year? Not so fast
With just one starter back and not a senior on the roster, it was easy to doubt Newport Central Catholic’s outlook for the 2025-26 season.
But what coach Trevor Steiner did with his team this year certainly isn’t going unnoticed. They went 20-12, finished runner-up in the 35th District and All “A” regional tournament and found themselves a budding star in Kendall Thompson.
Thompson paired nicely with the lone returning starter Brooklyn Cole as the two averaged 14.2 and 11.4 points per game, respectively.
“One thing we said when we all sat down at the beginning of the season is, this was not a throwaway year,” Steiner said. “The no senior thing, young group of girls thing, we were not willing to just turn the page on this season and chalk it up to inexperience. Those girls brought it day in and day out in practice, the results that showed in certain games this year. That’s indicative of the fact that they really did buy into getting everything they could out of every minute of the season and I’m extremely proud of them for that.”
One thing is certain, NewCath won’t be overlooked next season.
Notre Dame 51, St. Henry 25
Pandas fight off triangle and two
St. Henry’s focus was on Emma Holtzapfel and Amelia Stallard, deploying a triangle and two to contain the two. They did their job there, both finishing with three points, but others made them pay.
“We’re a tough team to triangle and two against us because our strength of our team is our balance,” Pandas coach George Stoll said. “We can score in a bunch of different ways and if they take away both Emma and Amelia the best they can, great. I’m willing to play three on three with our other three versus their three.”
Joslyn LaBordeaux-Humphrey led the way with 15 points, five rebounds, three assists and two blocked shots. She was pivotal in the Pandas 12-2 start to the game, scoring nine points in the first quarter.
“It’s just my senioritis,” LaBordeaux-Humphrey said. “I really wanted to get going early because it’s win or go home. Sometimes we’re a second half team, so we had to get going in the first quarter. Sometimes it starts with one person and I wanted it to be me today.”
Then Addie Lawrie got hot in the second half, hitting three 3-pointers and finishing with 13 points.
Pandas playing as well as anyone
Both Notre Dame and Ryle (see above) have won 12 of their last 14 and continue to look the part as the best teams in the 9th Region right now.
The Pandas continue to show their strength defensively in allowing just 45 points per game over their last 14 games. On Sunday they forced 20 St. Henry turnovers and allowed jst 10 made field goals.
They are also spreading the ball all over the place, Sunday the latest example as they had 17 assists on 18 made field goals.
“We are doing a really good job of sharing the basketball. We’ve done it throughout the year, but I’d say, especially over the past month or so, we’ve been sharing the ball extremely, extremely well,” Stoll said. “We have a bunch of unselfish girls who are there who want the team to win first and foremost.”
Crusaders depleted at the wrong time
Sophomore Audrey Pieczonka went down with an injury a couple weeks ago, Gia Jones was no longer with the team and Kenadi Sieg was unavailable on Sunday, leaving the Crusaders shorthanded at the wrong time.
They battled and showed fight, head coach Dan Trame having to roll out a starting lineup used for the first time this season.
After a disastrous start in falling down 12-2 in the first eight minutes of play, St. Henry responded in the second to get within five before trailing 21-12 at halftime.
They finished by outrebounding Notre Dame 29-28.
“The girls that played I have so much admiration and respect for because they fight,” Trame said. “I mean, we defended them great, mixing up combination defenses and was able to rebound the basketball and it just got away. Our defensive and our rebounding effort, I thought was a leap for us.”
The turnovers were too much to overcome, ending with 20 and Notre Dame holding a 20-3 points off turnovers edge.
Tuesday’s semifinals at NKU
6:30 p.m. — Notre Dame vs Highlands
8 p.m. — Holy Cross vs Ryle
The championship will then be played on Friday at 7 p.m.