Cooper’s intensity too much for Mercy in Girls’ Sweet 16

Up 20 points with 2:35 to play in the third quarter, Cooper’s Haylee Noel ripped the ball from the hands of a Mercy Academy rival at midcourt and took it to the hoop. About a minute later, teammate Zene Thompson dove to the floor to secure a rebound, her team leading now by 25.

Their intensity level maintained that margin through completion: Cooper took a battle of Jaguars 70-45 in the first round of the Clark’s Pump-N-Shop Girls’ Basketball Sweet 16 state tournament in Rupp Arena.

“The trust in all of us we have, and our ball pressure, helped us on offense,” Noel said. “Passing and keeping that up the whole game is how we won this game.”

Cooper’s reward: a quarterfinal showdown with No. 1 Sacred Heart, the four-time defending state champion, scheduled for 8:30 p.m. Friday in Rupp Arena.

It’s a rematch of a 2024 state semifinal — Sacred Heart won 58-50 — as well as a regular-season matchup from early January; the Valkyries claimed the most recent bout 60-49.

“They do a lot of things really well,” Cooper head coach Justin Holthaus said. “What you can’t do against Sacred Heart is get yourself in a hole because they guard so well. … When we played them early on in the year, I don’t think we shot it as well, so hopefully tomorrow we’re able to push the situation a little bit and hit some jump shots.”

Cooper (26-5) was 9-for-19 from beyond the arc Friday afternoon. Addyson Brissey went 4-for-5 on her way to 17 points to go along with nine rebounds. Noel had 24 points, 11 rebounds, five assists and two steals to help put Cooper in the second round for the third time in four years.

The winners jumped to a 10-0 lead but Mercy responded with an 8-0 run following a timeout. Cooper then scored 13 straight to open the second period but Mercy again had a response, 7-0, to get within single digits at the break. A 20-3 Cooper burst throughout the third quarter proved most consequential in the final score.

“I thought girls early on in the game maybe tried to do a little bit too much,” Holthaus said. “And then as time went on they started sharing the ball, we got good ball reversals and the shots started falling for us.”

Mercy was something of a surprise entry into the field. It failed to string together more than three consecutive wins in the regular season and entered postseason play with a 14-13 record. The Jaguars then won five straight playoff games, encompassing the 27th District and Sixth Region tournaments, to make their 12th Sweet 16 in program history.

Addyson Becker led Mercy with 12 points and three steals.

“We have smiles on our faces because we felt like we did the best that we could,” Becker said. “We’re proud of each other and our team, especially because nobody believed in us to even be here today. Once we got here, we played our hearts out.”

This story was originally published March 13, 2025 at 5:14 PM.