Star center dominates inside as Bullitt East advances to Girls’ Sweet 16 semifinals
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2022 Girls’ Sweet 16 coverage
Click below to read all of the coverage from Kentucky.com and the Lexington Herald-Leader during the Girls’ Sweet 16 State Basketball Tournament in Rupp Arena.
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It would have been hard for Gracie Merkle to top what she did last time her Bullitt East girls’ basketball team played Meade County.
In an early February game between Merkle and the Lady Chargers against the Lady Waves, Merkle had 27 points and 12 rebounds in a four-point overtime win for Bullitt East.
But Merkle (a Bellarmine commit) and the Lady Chargers found a way to put together an even more impressive performance Friday afternoon inside Rupp Arena against Meade County, and on a much bigger stage.
Merkle, a senior center, had 34 points and 11 rebounds — shooting 14-of-18 from the field and 6-of-13 from the foul line — as Bullitt East (32-4) blew past Meade County (29-7), 62-47, in the Mingua Beef Jerky Girls’ Sweet 16 State Basketball Tournament quarterfinals.
Bullitt East was to play Southwestern in Saturday’s first state semifinal at 11 a.m.
“We felt like that was a benefit to us,” Bullitt East head coach Chris Stallings said of playing Meade County earlier this season. “We thought we had a big size advantage inside. We were able to exploit that, but I think better than the first time we played them this year: One we defended them a little bit better, but then our kids really understood to get the ball inside to Gracie.”
Bullitt East raced out to a double-digit lead with more than three minutes still remaining in the first quarter. Meade County led only once in the game after scoring the game’s first basket after just three seconds.
The Lady Waves only outscored the Lady Chargers in one quarter, 16-13 in the third, and trimmed the deficit to as few as nine points with 6:23 left in the game.
Meade County reached Friday’s state quarterfinal after overcoming a 16-point second-half deficit to beat Boyd County on Wednesday, but the early lead built by Bullitt East stood the test of time, thanks largely to Merkle’s dominance as a go-to offensive presence, despite double- and triple-team defenses.
“Sometimes it’s a happy thought, like being able to get double-teamed and triple-teamed and not being able to get stopped,” Merkle said. “But sometimes I know when that happens, I’ll be able to kick it out to my teammates and they’ll be able to convert on those shots I kick out to them.”
Record crowd watches games
The announced attendance of 6,790 fans for the games between Bullitt East and Meade County and Southwestern and Franklin County on Friday afternoon was the largest crowd to ever watch a girls’ high school basketball session at Rupp Arena.
Postgame, Bullitt East’s and Meade County’s coaches stressed their place as community-based institutions that were able to elicit strong fan support, in particular from the green-clad fans of Meade County.
“I’ve been to a lot of state tournaments (and) today’s game felt like an old-school state tournament game at Diddle Arena (in Bowling Green),” Stallings said. “It was loud, both sides were full. Both end zones had a lot of people here.”
“It’s a memory we won’t forget and we want to thank our Meade County community that came out in fashion,” Meade County head coach Dina Hackert added, saluting the sea of green that was seen in the Rupp Arena stands. “To see them stay when the game was over and cheer our kids on, even in defeat, is a victory for our kids and they won’t forget that.”
This story was originally published March 11, 2022 at 5:12 PM.
