‘I had to step up.’ Kentucky signee powers Butler to Girls’ Sweet 16 semifinals.
With a state semifinals berth on the line, Butler’s biggest player unleashed perhaps her greatest performance, yet, in a grueling 39-36 win over Franklin County on Friday in the Mingua Beef Jerky Girls’ Sweet 16 at Rupp Arena.
Ramiya White, a 6-foot-5 center who has signed with Kentucky, scored Butler’s final 10 points in a back-and-forth battle against the 11th Region champions that wasn’t settled until the final horn sounded.
“I just knew I had to step up, get my team together and score,” said White, who finished with 19 points, 12 rebounds and five blocks. “Nobody wants to go home. Would you rather play or go home? I think we would rather play.”
It was the kind of performance Butler coach Candyce Wheeler knew White could have.
“She was calling for the ball, and she was getting frustrated when we weren’t giving her the ball, which I love,” Wheeler said. “At the start of the season, she wouldn’t have done that. But I’ve been on her since I’ve been at Butler about demanding the ball. And that’s what she did and our other players found a way to get it to her and she capitalized.”
Buckets proved hard to come by for each team throughout. Neither shot well for long stretches and each scored only four points in a sluggish second quarter. Butler barely managed a 14-13 halftime lead.
Franklin County pushed to one-point advantages three times in the second half, but after going up 33-32 on a pair of Logan Kennedy free throws with 2:53 to play in the game, White took over. White got a feed from teammate Mariah Knight in the post and hit a layup and foul shot to put Butler back in front, 35-33, just 10 seconds later.
Knight, a Jacksonville commit, scored 12 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to go with three assists, three blocks and two steals.
The Flyers cut Butler’s margin to a single point twice more over the last two and a half minutes, but each time White layups kept Franklin County at bay while Butler’s defense thwarted its opponent’s attempts to go back in front.
“Defense travels and our defense traveled,” Wheeler said. “Makayla (Alexander) comes up with a huge charge, Malia Patrick comes up with a huge charge, and that’s what got us through it because we knew it was going to be a dogfight.”
The final blow came when White fought through Leia Hogan’s block, collected her miss and put home a layup for a 39-36 lead with 15 seconds left. Franklin County’s long 3-point attempt to tie fell short and the horn sounded.
“We had multiple chances to take the lead on a couple occasions and we just never really could do anything consistently once we got to the basket against their physicality,” Franklin County coach Joey Thacker said.
Franklin County (27-9) shot a paltry 20.9 percent from the field and made only one of 12 3-point shots. Rachel Shropshire led the Flyers with eight points, Logan Kennedy and Juliana Frazee scored six each.
“We gave up 42 points a game all year, and they gave up 42 points a game all year. So, sooner or later, you better have a good kicker or you better make some 3-pointers.”
Thacker praised White’s improvement over the years and acknowledged the difficulty his team had stopping her.
“Anytime she wanted to go score, she scored,” Thacker said. “And she’s going to get better and better.”
Next, Butler (31-6) was to take on McCracken County in the 11 a.m. Saturday semifinal. The Mustangs defeated Bowling Green 47-41 in Friday’s first quarterfinals matchup.
