Lone senior’s clutch basket lifts North Laurel over Douglass in Girls’ Sweet 16
On Kentucky girls’ high school basketball’s biggest stage, North Laurel’s Emily Sizemore executed a play she’s done perhaps thousands of times in her driveway or her gym back home.
With a feint to her right and crossover dribble to her left hand, Sizemore drove down the lane and flipped a shot at the top left corner of the backboard’s shooting square. The ball banked and took a couple of nervous bounces on the rim before slipping through the net with six seconds left.
“This was the moment I’ve prepared for since I was 5 years old,” Sizemore said.
The clutch basket only gave opponent Frederick Douglass a few seconds for a desperation heave that couldn’t prevent the Jaguars from claiming a come-from-behind 59-57 victory in Wednesday’s final first-round game of the Mingua Beef Jerky Girls’ Sweet 16 state basketball tournament at Rupp Arena.
By focusing on how simple a play it was, Sizemore made the huge moment routine, she said.
“That could have been a shot I took in the second quarter. It’s no different just because the game was on the line,” said Sizemore, North Laurel’s lone senior who was recently named a Miss Basketball candidate as the 13th Region player of the year. “I had confidence and I just took the shot.”
North Laurel (30-6) trailed by as many as nine points in the first half and by eight with 6:40 to play.
But the Broncos (24-9) could never put North Laurel away thanks in large part to the efforts of Brooke Nichelson, who scored a game-high 26 points, including three three-pointers and a number of bulldozing drives to the basket.
Nichelson, a 5-foot-10 sophomore who averages 14.3 points per game, has shown flashes of brilliance throughout her career, North Laurel Coach Eddie Mahan Jr. said.
“I’ve coached 24 years, and I don’t know if I’ve coached many that’s come close to her athletic ability,” Mahan said. “The difference in her this year and previous years is her skill level is catching up with her athleticism. And now you’re seeing that player that you saw on that floor.”
Nichelson shied from talking about her big night, which also included a pair of free throws that gave North Laurel a 52-51 lead with 4:03 to play — the Jaguars’ first lead since the first quarter.
“I just wanted to get a win for Emily, our senior,” she said.
Emily Sizemore’s younger sister Bella played a huge role, too, with a pair of fourth quarter three-pointers, her only points of the game. The second deep-range shot put the Jaguars up 55-51 with 2:46 left.
But North Laurel quickly ran into foul trouble as Nichelson and junior forward Gracie McKnight each fouled out less than a minute apart with plenty of time for Douglass to claw back in it.
Douglass’s Ayanna Darrington cut the Jaguars’ lead to 57-54 at the foul line with 1:54 left.
The next 83 seconds were a blur of turnovers, missed shots and scrambles on the deck until a timeout allowed Douglass to set up Niah Rhodes’ banked-in three-pointer to tie the game 57-57 with 31 seconds left.
Douglass’s subsequent full-court pressure prompted a final timeout for North Laurel. Sizemore took it from there for the win. She finished with 14 points. McKnight added 10.
“North Laurel made some big shots and we couldn’t get a couple of stops and it hurt us,” Douglass Coach Daryl Moberly said. “They got going. They got a few tough baskets and a few tough calls kind of turned it around in the fourth quarter.”
Darrington led Douglass with 22 points and 18 rebounds. Rhodes and Kate Baker added 11 and nine points, respectively.
2023 Girls’ Sweet 16
What: Sixteen-team tournament to decide Kentucky’s high school basketball state champion.
When: Wednesday through Saturday
Where: Rupp Arena
Tickets: Tickets available for purchase at KHSAA.org.
Girls’ Sweet 16 schedule, results
At Rupp Arena
Wednesday’s first-round games
Owensboro Catholic 54, Bowling Green 51
Sacred Heart 70, Lawrence County 33
George Rogers Clark 51, Mercer County 43
North Laurel 59, Frederick Douglass 57
Thursday’s first-round games
11 a.m.: Knott County Central (23-9) vs. Ashland Blazer (25-7)
1:30 p.m.: McCracken County (32-2) vs. Bethlehem (28-7)
6 p.m.: Mercy (24-9) vs. Cooper (29-3)
8:30 p.m.: Henderson County (26-4) vs. Simon Kenton (19-14)
Friday’s quarterfinals
11 a.m.: Owensboro Catholic (26-9) vs. Sacred Heart (33-3)
1:30 p.m.: George Rogers Clark (27-7) vs. North Laurel (30-6)
6 p.m.: Knott County Central-Ashland Blazer winner vs. McCracken County-Bethlehem winner
8:30 p.m.: Mercy-Cooper winner vs. Henderson County-Simon Kenton winner
Saturday’s games
11 a.m.: Semifinal 1: Winners of Friday’s morning session
1:30 p.m.: Semifinal 2: Winners of Friday’s evening session
7 p.m.: Championship
This story was originally published March 9, 2023 at 12:43 AM.
