‘A huge part of the building of our program’: Whitney Lind and Cooper raise the bar.
Once again, Cooper girls’ basketball is favored to win the 9th Region.
The No. 3 team in the state, according to Dave Cantrall’s Rating the State, has amassed an overall record of 23-3, as well as gone undefeated in both its region and district. Following last year’s Sweet 16 run and semifinals loss to eventual champion Sacred Heart, Cooper is a team that understands what it takes to move forward and conquer the toughest of challenges.
This season, Cooper has stacked its schedule with some of the best teams across the state: a 52-40 loss to Sacred Heart in a rematch of the 2022 Sweet 16 semifinals on Dec. 9; a 63-58 victory over Ryle on Jan. 13; a 53-42 loss to Manual on Jan. 28. Cooper is not afraid of a fight.
And, on Friday evening, the Jaguars found themselves in yet another battle with a ranked team. Cooper traveled to Lexington to take on No. 15 Frederick Douglass, and, despite a rocky first half that left the Jaguars down by four at the half, found a way to win by staying aggressive on the defensive end.
“[It reflects] just the growth in our program,” Cooper head coach Justin Holthaus said following the win. “You know, we went on the big run last year, we made it down to Rupp Arena. And we’ve just continued to build this year with a tough schedule. We’re really trying to challenge ourselves, and our girls are always gonna fight. … We faced a lot of adversity in this game, especially early on with foul trouble, but we didn’t skip a beat. We didn’t panic, or anything like that.”
A year removed from that big run in the Sweet 16, upperclassmen make up more than half of the Jaguars’ roster.
“We’re gonna really rely on our leadership from our seniors,” Holthaus said. “But what I like about our kids, they’re just so connected. They care about each other and it’s not just surface level. They trust each other, they love each other, they’ve been playing together for a long time.”
Included in that senior leadership is Lehigh signee and Cooper star forward Whitney Lind.
Lind, who has started for the Jaguars since her eighth-grade year, has been both a leading scorer and leading rebounder for Cooper across her five years with the team. This season, she has averaged 17.6 points on 56% shooting and 6.6 rebounds per game.
“She’s been huge,” Holthaus said of Lind’s impact on the program. “Whitney’s such a great kid, and she’s so efficient on what she does. She’s not a girl that needs to come out of here and shoot the ball 20-25 times. She’s never worried about her stat line. She’s worried about the team first, and she’s been a huge part of the building of our program.”
Lind said that she has learned a lot from her time at Cooper, but particularly noted where she has grown the most.
“Leadership and how I carry myself,” Lind said. “When things aren’t going right, I have a bunch of teammates here. I also wanna carry that to the next level. Just carrying myself, being a leader and trying not to get too high, too low. Being consistent. And I’ve learned a lot through my teammates here, and through my coaching staff.”
Cooper benefits from balanced, unselfish play. Players including sisters Liz and Kay Freihofer, who average 9.6 and 7.3 points per game, respectively, and Logan Palmer, who averages 75% from the free-throw line, add depth and reliability to the program.
But Cooper hangs its hat on the defensive end. In Friday’s game against Frederick Douglass, the Jaguars held the Broncos to 20 points in the second half after being outscored 33-29 in the first 16 minutes of the game. And, according to Lind, if the team were to make another postseason run, it would be on the back of strong defense.
“Definitely our defense,” Lind said. “That’s just our main goal, our main priority. In practice every day, we just harp on it. If anything will get us there, it’ll be our defense.”
This story was originally published February 11, 2023 at 11:50 AM.
