‘They deserve this.’ Lexington Catholic defense keys dominant second half in region opener.
-Original.jpg "Lexington Catholic’s Katherine Truitt signals for a pass while guarded by Madison Southern’s Jada Carter during their first-round game of the 11th Region Tournament at Lexington Catholic on Monday night. Truitt scored a game-high 26 points in the win.")
Lexington Catholic turned up the defensive pressure in the second half and flipped a four-point halftime deficit into a 55-42 win over Madison Southern on Monday in the first round of the girls’ 11th Region Tournament.
“We press. We get after you. We basically get people in here and say, ‘Who wants to run with us for two hours?’” Lexington Catholic Coach Lee Tegt said. “KT (Katherine Truitt) over there and all these girls can run forever.”
Lexington Catholic’s victory was one of four first-round games Monday all won by the host teams, the district champions from last week: Franklin County, Frederick Douglass and Madison Central. The Knights will play the three-time defending champion Flyers on Wednesday as the tournament moves to Eastern Kentucky University’s Baptist Health Arena in Richmond.
Truitt, LexCath’s University of Kentucky soccer commit who moonlights as an all-region basketball player, scored a game-high 26 points against Madison Southern, including a three-pointer just before the end of the third quarter for a 41-37 lead that seemed to fully swing the game’s momentum in favor of the Knights.
“I think the nerves kind of left us and we just started playing for fun and it showed,” Truitt said of LexCath’s second-half performance in which it forced 10 Madison Southern turnovers for 21 points.
At its best, Lexington Catholic (18-10) tries to speed up opponents with full-court pressure and also traps and harasses in its half-court zone. And like Tegt said, his players can seemingly run all day.
“It’s not that tiring,” Truitt said. “It’s more fun than anything to speed everything up and get a lot of layups out of it. Sydney (Elbert) got a couple and Mary Martin (Hampton) creates so much chaos. It’s a lot of fun.”
Hampton scored all 11 of her points in the second half. Lydia Kennedy added 10 and had three blocked shots. Truitt also had 10 rebounds.
But the game looked a bit different in the first half as Madison Southern shot a red-hot 55.5 percent from the field, including making five of its seven three-point tries. Hadley French’s buzzer-beating three from the left wing gave Madison Southern a 29-25 lead at the break.
“They hit some shots, but I said, ‘You’ve just got to keep competing,’” Tegt said he told his team. “‘If they continue to hit like that, we’ll keep adjusting, but other than that, just go be yourself.’”
Madison Southern (18-15) cooled off considerably in the second half with only four field goals in 20 attempts and only two more threes. French led the Eagles with 13 points. Ashlan Estep had 10.
Lexington Catholic has not played Franklin County since 2007, around the time the Knights were finishing up a dominant run in the 11th like the Flyers are enjoying now. Franklin has won six of the last eight region titles. From 1999 to 2006, LexCath won seven region titles in eight years and also won the Girls’ Sweet 16 in four of those seasons.
But last week marked LexCath’s first district title since 2008 and the program hasn’t been to a region semis since 2009.
“I’m happy our girls get to be on that floor at EKU,” Tegt said. “They’ve worked so hard. They deserve this. We strove for a district title, the first one in a long time and we strove not just to make it to region but come here and compete.”
Tegt knows toppling Franklin will be difficult, but he believes the key to winning lies within his team.
“We know who we are. We’re going to look at some film on Franklin County, but we’re going to go out there and just do what we do,” Tegt said. “The biggest thing is — believe in each other; believe in ourselves. We’re there for a reason, so, let’s go do it.”
Monday’s other games
Frederick Douglass 71, Great Crossing 60: The Broncos (22-8) overcame a slow start and got a game-high 19 points and 10 rebounds from junior forward Victory Sledge in the comeback win. Douglass point guard Jermyra Christian added 17 points, 11 rebounds and four steals.
Douglass trailed 22-14 at the end of one period and 36-34 at halftime before its offense and defense awoke with a 26-13 run in the third quarter. Three-pointers by Niah Rhodes and Kate Baker helped Douglass take a 56-47 lead late in that period. Rhodes finished with 12 points. Baker had 11.
The Broncos continued to play without standout junior forward Ayanna Darrington, who has been sidelined the last several games with an ankle injury
Great Crossing (19-14) was led by Olivia Tierney, Raegan Barrett and Adrianna Brown with 13, 11, and 10 points, respectively.
Franklin County 68, Bryan Station 52: The Flyers (26-7) had four players score in double figures, led by junior guard Rachel Shropshire’s 19 points as Franklin County slowly built a convincing win.
Franklin led 29-20 at halftime and 48-31 after three quarters. Jazmin Chambers, Logan Kennedy and Juliana Frazee each added 10 points. Bryan Station (14-18) was led by Albertine Cyuzuzo and Jailenn Green with 13 and 12 points, respectively.
Madison Central 63, Tates Creek 38: Nataya Strader scored 22 points while Brittany Campbell added 14 and Bailey Hensley had 12 in the Indians (22-6) rout.
Tates Creek (17-14) made just two of 18 field goal attempts and committed 18 turnovers in the first half as Madison Central built a 33-11 halftime lead. Miracle Morbley led the Commodores with 12 points.
Rest of region schedule up in the air
While the rest of the 11th Region girls’ tournament games are tentatively scheduled to continue with semifinals Wednesday and finals on Saturday at EKU’s Baptist Health Arena, a potential conflict exists if EKU’s men’s basketball team earns the right to host another ASUN Conference game.
An EKU victory Tuesday combined with a loss by No. 1 seed Kennesaw State or No. 3 seed Liberty means the Colonels as the No. 3 seed would get to host the conference semifinals later this week, leaving the entire 11th Region boys’ and girls’ schedule awaiting word on when EKU and its opponent will need the arena for shootarounds and the game.
Girls’ 11th Region Tournament
At Eastern Kentucky University’s Baptist Health Arena, Richmond
Wednesday’s semifinals*
6:30 p.m.: Lexington Catholic (18-10) vs. Franklin County (26-7)
8:30 p.m.: Madison Central (22-6) vs. Frederick Douglass (22-8)
Saturday’s finals*
6 p.m.: Championship game
*Subject to change.
