Not this time.
Trying to erase past state tournament demons, Simon Kenton was able to prevail on Thursday afternoon at Rupp Arena in the girls KHSAA Clark’s Pump-n-Shop Sweet 16 over Ashland Blazer, 70-61.
In a physical battle that featured 37 fouls, it was an eighth grader playing the role of hero as Angela Kabeya scored a career-high 29 points in the victory.
Kabeya wasn’t even a starter until a few weeks ago when Meg Gadzala went down with a season ending injury. She came in averaging 8.8 points per game.
“We kind of figured it out once Angela got into rotation as the sixth man,” Lady Pioneers coach Jeff Stowers said. “She’s our instant offense. She’s our Vinnie Johnson, our microwave.”
Simon Kenton led throughout, but it didn’t come easy. Using a 14-0 run to take a 41-27 lead midway through the third quarter, Ashland responded with a 24-10 run of their own to tie things up at 51 with 5:06 to play in the game. The Lady Pioneers called timeout to regroup.
“When they came to the sideline, I said, ‘We’re right back where we started the game. I said, now it’s just a matter of us getting one more point.’,” Stowers said. “If there’s anything else that’s going on, claw, gnaw, whatever we got to do to get one more point. We got to close down the gaps. We got to go and rebound. We got to do what we execute on the offensive end. Once we get them in foul trouble, we got to go make free throws.”
Being here before, the Lady Pioneers weren’t about to be a one and done. They executed, responded and made vital plays down the stretch.
At 51-51, it was Haylie Webb providing critical answers first with two buckets, one off an inbounds play, the other a putback to make it 55-53 with 4:16 to go. Then it was Bella Ober’s turn. Her back-to-back layups made it 59-54 with 2:02 to play. It’s a moment Stowers has been waiting for as Ober finished with 14 points on 6-of-10 shooting to go with six assists and three steals.
“We’ve been on Bella all year long,” Stowers said. “She’s the consumate team player. She distributes the ball and keeps everybody happy. We’ve told her all along at some point in time you got to get your offense in. The last talk I had to her I told her I know we tell you all the time about not taking shots. So two games ago she goes out, she throws the first two shots up and they go in. And now she’s more assertive because what she did tonight is what she’s capable of doing is getting to the basket.”
Then comes the eighth grader as Angela Kabeya delivered the dagger with a 3-pointer with 1:44 to play to make it 62-54. She hit four of SK’s five 3-pointers, finishing 11-of-18 from the field and 4-of-6 from three.
“It felt like all the other games we played,” Kabeya said. “I knew what I was doing, we lost first round last year and I feel like since this year, we really want to win it all. We have to put our mindset to it, walk in and play good.”
It’s been nine years in the waiting for Stowers to win at the Sweet 16, the last one coming in 2017 against Paintsville at NKU. They had come up short in their three previous trips in 2018, 2023 and ’25.
“It’s not so much for me as it is for them,” Stowers said. “We’ve come down here too many times to take a take an L and go back and try to figure it out. They weren’t going to let us lose tonight. It’s just a collective effort of the senior leadership, these two (Ober and Kabeya), and cheesy (Kabeya) put it on tonight.”
For Brynli Pernell, Haylie Webb and Anna Kelch, this was their third trip to the state tournament as starters. Now they can breathe a sigh of relief. Pernell was the main focus of the physical Ashland defense, held to 12 points on 3-of-12 shooting.
“It definitely feels nice,” Pernell said. “That was the first hump to this tournament, which was our mindset going into it, we have to get past this first round and then the rest, you have to win one game at a time. I think this was really nice and I think it’ll give us a high going into the next game.”
Webb and Kelch were saddled with foul trouble, Webb finishing with 12 points and eight rebounds, Kelch with three points and six rebounds.
Simon Kenton led for 28:03 in the game, Ashland tied it up five times, but never could take the lead. The Lady Pioneers advance to Friday’s quarterfinals to face the Owensboro Catholic-Letcher County Central winner at 6 p.m.
LADY PIONEERS 70, KITTENS 61
ASHLAND BLAZER — 10-14-16-21 — 61
SIMON KENTON — 13-14-21-22 — 70
Scoring
Ashland (61) — Karle 22, Duckwyler 20, Smith 11, Troxler 3, Gulley 3, Delaney 2
Simon Kenton (70) — Kabeya 29, Ober 14, Pernell 12, Webb 12, Kelch 3
Game Stats
Field Goals: Ashland 22/53, Simon Kenton 26/54
3-Pointers: Ashland 6/17, Simon Kenton 5/13
Free Throws: Ashland 11/19, Simon Kenton 13/15
Rebounds: Ashland 28, Simon Kenton 36
Assists: Ashland 12, Simon Kenton 15
Turnovers: Ashland 13, Simon Kenton 12
Steals: Ashland 9, Simon Kenton 5
Blocked Shots: Ashland 5, Simon Kenton 1
Fouls: Ashland 20, Simon Kenton 17
Records: Ashland 26-6, Simon Kenton 32-2