‘I’ve got Leah Macy back.’ With star back on court, Bethlehem gets revenge in Sweet 16.
Bethlehem High School trailed Pikeville by six points at halftime in the 2024 Mingua Beef Jerky Girls’ Sweet 16 at Rupp Arena.
Banshees head coach Jason Clark chose this moment to remind his players what was going to be necessary to advance from Thursday’s first round into Friday’s quarterfinals or beyond.
“Told the girls that we just got to dig in on the defensive end,” Clark said.
Dig in the Banshees did.
After allowing six first-half three-pointers en route to a 32-26 deficit after the game’s first 16 minutes, Bethlehem extended and amped up its defense to rally for a 56-49 instant classic victory.
The win launched the Banshees (27-8) into a quarterfinals matchup Friday night against three-time defending state champion Sacred Heart Academy.
“If I’m not mistaken, we held them to 17 points in the second half,” Clark said. “And that was definitely the difference in the ballgame for us. Everybody knows that we score a lot of points, but our defense has not been where it needed to be. And I’m super proud of the girls to really dig in on that end of the court. And that’s probably the difference in the game why we won, I know they had six threes at the half. And I’m looking at the stat sheet here and they were 6-of-22 for the game. So we did a much better job with guarding the three-point line.”
Thursday’s matchup represented a stark difference from the teams’ first meeting this season, when the Panthers (27-6) outscored the Banshees 78-52 in late December in the Lady Panther Invitational Tournament in Pikeville. What was the biggest difference between the two games?
“They hit 11 threes the first time,” Clark said, laughing. “And I’ve got Leah Macy back.”
Not only did the Banshees make a concerted effort to guard the arc this time around, they also got a major boost from Macy, the No. 8 overall national recruit in the class of 2025. Macy sustained a knee injury early this season and couldn’t take the court against Pikeville in December.
On Thursday, Macy scored 31 points on 12-of-19 shooting and grabbed 17 rebounds. She also recorded one assist, two blocks and a steal. Bethlehem also benefited from nine points, five rebounds, one assist and three steals from junior point guard Tessa Miles and six points, two rebounds, one assist and one steal from senior guard Carlie Thurmond.
“I think we average some-70 points a game, so I knew on the offensive end we would be fine,” Clark said. “But it was just about us getting stops. And you know, the girls did a great job in the second half.”
Pikeville made 46% of their shots in the first half, including 50% from beyond the arc. But the Panthers’ field goal percentage dropped to 28% in the second half.
“I thought we pushed the ball really well and we followed the game plan exactly how we wanted to do,” Pikeville head coach Kristy Orem said. “It was just some shots didn’t fall for us. Some shots that these kids work on every day, knock down every day. Trinity (Rowe) is a great leader of that tempo, pushing the tempo and getting us in position. Finding everybody to get the great shots, and I thought we had really good looks and just a bad day for us.”
Senior guard and Southern Mississippi commit Trinity Rowe, the 15th Region’s player of the year and a finalist for the Kentucky Miss Basketball award, led the Panthers with 17 points, including two three-pointers. She added four rebounds and six assists. Senior guard and Jacksonville State commit Kyera Thornsbury added 14 points, four rebounds and two assists. Senior guard Kristen Whited recorded 10 points, three rebounds and one assist.
This story was originally published March 14, 2024 at 4:16 PM.
