It will be an All-35th District final for the girls 9th Region basketball championship.
After Notre Dame came to in the second half and defeated Highlands, Holy Cross stunned Ryle by coming back from a 16-point halftime deficit as the two advanced to Friday’s St. Elizabeth Healthcare 9th Region championship at Northern Kentucky University’s Truist Arena.
It will be the third matchup of the season between the two, Notre Dame taking the prior two meetings, once in the regular season, the other in the district championship less than a week ago.
Here’s how they got there:
Holy Cross 66, Ryle 60 (OT)
After falling in a 12-0 hole to start the game and 31-16 by halftime, Holy Cross came back with their motto.
“Our motto is nobody outworks us,” Indians coach Ted Arlinghaus said. “We’re going to be the hardest working team in the gym. After the game, teams are going to know that they played Holy Cross.”
Ryle might want to forget they played Holy Cross for how it went down.
The Indians outscored Ryle 27-18 in the third to get within seven and finally tied the game up at 55 on Avery Sturgeon’s 3-pointer with 1:45 remaining. Neither team scored the rest of regulation, Indians Riley Eberhard’s shot in the waning seconds unable to fall.
Holy Cross took their first lead of the night at 58-57 with 2:57 left in the extra period on a Paige Arlinghaus free throw, but it was short lived as Jaelyn Jones answered on the other end with a bucket.
After Laynee Hampton hit 1-of-2 free throw attempts to make it 60-58 Ryle with 1:05 to play in the overtime, Alyssa Arlinghaus hit a 3-pointer off an offensive rebound with under a minute to play to give the Indians the lead for good.
“I was open and you know, shooters shoot,” Alyssa Arlinghaus said. “I wasn’t scared to take that shot. I was ready to take that shot. I practice shooting every single day. I was kind of dreaming about having a big shot down at NKU. So that was really, really cool.”
Arlinghaus would knock down four free throws in the last 30 seconds to secure the victory and get the Indians to their first region championship game since 2015.
At 31-15 at the break, it looked as if Holy Cross’ season was on the brink. Don’t tell that to who was in the locker room.
“I told them at halftime this is your chance,” Ted Arlinghaus said. “This is our story. Let’s go out there and let’s make this our story where we go out there and at the end of the game, when there’s 00 on the clock, we have one more point than they do.”
Possession by possession the Indians showed the grit and toughness needed to mount the comeback. Struggling to get by Ryle’s Jayden McClain in the first half, Indians’ Riley Eberhard figured it out. After scoring seven in the first half, she went for 14 points in the second half and overtime and helped create for others, also securing 10 rebounds.
“We wanted to try to get her (McClain) into more actions and score or dish it out,” Eberhard said. “I think we did a good job of driving it into her, scoring on her and also dishing out for the three.”
Alyssa Arlinghaus also went for 21 points, 15 of them coming in the second half while grabbing eight rebounds. The balance kept going, Avery Sturgeon added 10 points, including the critical 3-pointer to tie it while Jai Johnson chipped in nine points to go with six assists and three steals and shaking off an injury scare near the end of the game where she had to be helped off the court.
Now they get two days of rest to try and figure out how to beat their arch-rival. Notre Dame won the first meeting 43-41 on Dec. 10 in overtime and then 60-43 on Feb. 26 in the 35th District championship.
“They know a lot about us. We know a lot about them. I love my team. I like my chances,” Ted Arlinghaus said.
For Ryle, it puts a bitter end to what was a blazing end to the season. They had won 12 of their last 14 coming into Tuesday night and looked every bit the part of a region champion through six quarters of play in the region tournament.
McClain was dominating the interior in the first half with 12 points, seven rebounds and three blocked shots and finished with 21 points, 12 rebounds and six blocks. Jaelyn Jones added 16 points on 7-of-11 shooting while grabbing six rebounds. She closes out her high school career as one of the top 10 scorers all-time in program history while also ranking in the top 10 in assists, steals, blocks and games played.
They were also getting help elsewhere as Emerson Dowell, Laynee Hampton and Gianna Cooper all provided big moments throughout, but the Lady Raiders just couldn’t close the door.
Their season comes to a close at 21-10 as they are still in search for their first region title since 2020, when they won three in a row. Jones is one of three graduates for Ryle, Piper Ascherman and Ava Warner the other two.
Notre Dame 48, Highlands 31
Trailing 16-12 at halftime and scoring just one point in the second quarter, Pandas head coach George Stoll said the message was “stern” at halftime.
“I don’t have many stern talks, but we can call it a very stern talk at halftime,” Stoll said.
The message was well received as they came out of the half scoring 19 points in the third and turned the four-point deficit into a six-point lead at 31-25 headed into the fourth.
A 10-0 run from late in the third to nearly the midway point of the fourth proved to be a backbreaker for the Bluebirds. By the time Bailey Richey got Highlands their first points of the fourth, they found themselves in a 37-27 deficit, just too much for a Pandas zone with lengthy bodies to overcome.
Emma Holtzapfel led Notre Dame with 16 points, hitting all eight of her free throw attempts. Joslyn LaBordeaux-Humphrey added 12 points while Sarah Young was the force on the interior with seven points, four rebounds and six blocked shots. Addie Lawrie tossed in eight points.
“In practice we were kind of emphasizing they don’t have as much size as we do,” Young said. “So I think it was really important to establish some presence in the post and just sort of get them afraid to drive.”
Highlands early strategy of a similar matchup zone they played against Cooper paid off. They trailed 9-2 to start as the Pandas got hot early with three 3-pointers from LaBordeaux-Humphrey, Holtzapfel and Lawrie. But then it was a clamping down from Highlands as they limited the Pandas to just three points over the final 10 minutes-plus of the first half. Notre Dame attempted just 12 shots and had 10 turnovers at the break.
“I challenged each and every single one of them individually in there at halftime,” Stoll said. “They all stepped up together, individually and collectively as a team and stepped up the plate.”
Solu Nzekwu was a big reason for the Highlands lead at the break. The eighth grader scored the Bluebirds first nine points and had 11 at the break as they held the four-point advantage.
Finding points from there was a chore as they went 13-of-40 from the field and 3-of-17 from 3-point land in the contest.
“They threw that zone at us and we just settled for some outside shots,” Bluebirds coach Jaime Richey said. “We talked about attack, attack, attack, but you know, things happen. The difference in the game is they shoot 14 free throws and we shoot two because we didn’t look to attack. We didn’t look to attack and go into them as much as we needed to.”
Nzekwu led the way with 13 points, no other Bluebird with more than six.
“She’s so athletic and so gifted and she came out there and carried us in the first half,” Richey said.
The loss puts an end to Highlands season at 18-12 as they’ll lose four seniors to graduation in Avery Barber, Madison Barlow, Katie Bucher and Kaylee Mills.
Notre Dame will be looking for their first region title since 2013 come Friday. This will be their fifth region championship appearance since the title in ’13. Stoll will be looking for his second region title, winning one with Newport Central Catholic in 2014.
Box scores from each game below:
INDIANS 66, RAIDERS 60 (OT)
RYLE — 18-13-18-6-5 — 60
HOLY CROSS — 9-6-27-13-11 — 66
Scoring
Ryle (60) — McClain 21, Jones 16, Dowell 7, Hampton 7, Cooper 5, Ascherman 2, Warner 2
Holy Cross (66) — Eberhard 21, A. Arlinghaus 21, Sturgeon 10, Johnson 9, P. Arlinghaus 3, Hunt 2
Game Stats
Field Goals: Ryle 24/51, Holy Cross 22/55
3-Pointers: Ryle 3/15, Holy Cross 7/19
Free Throws: Ryle 9/16, Holy Cross 15/17
Rebounds: Ryle 31, Holy Cross 35
Assists: Ryle 9, Holy Cross 10
Turnovers: Ryle 13, Holy Cross 10
Steals: Ryle 6, Holy Cross 7
Blocked Shots: Ryle 6, Holy Cross 2
Fouls: Ryle 16, Holy Cross 16
Records: Ryle 21-10, Holy Cross 28-5
PANDAS 48, BLUEBIRDS 31
HIGHLANDS — 7-9-9-6 — 31
NOTRE DAME — 11-1-19-17 — 48
Scoring
Highlands (31) — Nzekwu 13, Richey 6, Bucher 5, Mills 3, Neufarth 2, Lickert 2
Notre Dame (48) — Holtzapfel 16, LaBordeaux-Humphrey 12, Lawrie 8, Young 7, Stallard 5
Game Stats
Field Goals: Highlands 13/40, Notre Dame 15/29
3-Pointers: Highlands 3/16, Notre Dame 6/11
Free Throws: Highlands 2/2, Notre Dame 12/14
Rebounds: Highlands 23, Notre Dame 19
Assists: Highlands 9, Notre Dame 11
Turnovers: Highlands 14, Notre Dame 13
Steals: Highlands 4, Notre Dame 8
Blocked Shots: Highlands 3, Notre Dame 6
Fouls: Highlands 17, Notre Dame 8
Records: Highlands 18-12, Notre Dame