‘I hope they remember this forever.’ Spirited rally puts Danville Christian in Sweet 16 semis
Danville Christian Academy’s girls basketball team isn’t shy about glorifying God, vocally or silently.
The Warriors might have made believers out of some on Friday night. They rallied from an 11-point halftime deficit to defeat Henderson County 60-55 in the quarterfinals of the Clark’s Pump-N-Shop Girls Basketball Sweet 16. The second-time state tournament participants will meet either No. 1 Sacred Heart or No. 3 Cooper in the semifinals Saturday morning in Rupp Arena.
“Praise God, that was unbelievable,” DCA head coach Billy Inmon said. “I hope they remember this forever.”
DCA on Thursday won its first Sweet 16 game in program history, a comfortable 53-40 decision over Daviess County. Claiming another proved much more difficult, but it did so against a perennial power in Henderson County, which has played in 21 state tournaments, including the last seven.
“I’ll be honest with you, I’m as shocked as anybody that they were able to flip it,” Inmon said. “If we were playing some sort of mediocre team I wouldn’t be so astonished, but we were playing an incredible program. They don’t get rattled — they rattle other people.”
After a brief 4-2 lead, the Warriors (27-7) trailed the remainder of the first half. They had as many turnovers (14) as shot attempts over the first 16 minutes, and the Colonels (28-6) capitalized. Henderson County outscored DCA 14-2 off turnovers in the first half and 18-10 in the paint.
That second stat is particularly notable because Henderson’s tallest player probably stood about 5-10 versus DCA’s 6-foot-5 star, Grace Mbugua. She was perfect from the floor in the first half but only took six shots for the Warriors and had five turnovers; she drew the brunt of Inmon’s intensity during a late stoppage as the half wound down. His halftime speech, conducted on the bench rather than in the locker room, was just a touch less spirited and focused mostly on his team’s desire to win. It ended, like most of their huddles, with a brief prayer and a one-word shout: Joshua, a reference to a biblical military leader.
A’Tylia Green opened the second half with a layup for Henderson County but DCA responded with a 15-2 run to close the third, punctuated by back-to-back buckets by Amauri Blackford. The Colonels twice retook the lead briefly, but DCA held onto it for good after a pair of drives to the rim by Alaya Quisenberry midway through the fourth.
The Colonels stayed within striking distance, scoring four points in a 10-second span down the stretch thanks to a timely steal, but DCA had an easier time breaking their press after the break; the Warriors coughed it up just seven times after intermission.
“I don’t know if they made any adjustments at halftime or not but it seemed like they made better passes and they were catching the ball a bit better,” Colonels head coach Stephen Haile said. “I thought our energy was still good, the girls were flying around, getting deflections and things like that.”
Mbugua was a revelation in last year’s state tournament; the little-talked-about forward almost single-handedly willed the upstart Warriors to an upset win against No. 2 Cooper in the first round. At the time she was committed to Liberty University, but bigger schools honed in on the 6-foot-5 powerhouse hiding in Boyle County. Mbugua signed with Louisville in November.
She finished with 32 points — 16 in each half — along with 15 rebounds and four blocked shots. Three of those blocks came in the second half.
“Our main thing this year is being ‘Joshuas,’” Mbugua said. “He talks about being strong and courageous. I think just coming in stronger and bolder, and stepping up to the challenge that the other team gives us. Obviously the first half we were playing scared and weren’t matching their physicality.
“Coach reminded us that we’re here to glorify God and we’ve got to play strong because it’s big-girl basketball now.”
This story was originally published March 14, 2025 at 11:13 PM.