Toughness personified. How West Jessamine defied odds to reach Girls’ Sweet 16
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- West Jessamine overcame injuries and losses to win the 12th Region title.
- Seniors and returning starters delivered key plays down the stretch.
- Coach Hilkens credits tough schedule and team resilience for timing
Sitting in their coach’s office ahead of the first girls state basketball tournament practice in school history, West Jessamine’s freshly crowned 12th Region champions beamed confidence along with their smiles on Monday afternoon.
Such confidence, it did not betray the trials the Colts have endured the last two years or the doubts and blowouts they’d suffered this season.
Confidence, grit and determination had seen them through all that to a history-making campaign that continues at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday against Taylor County in the first round of the Clark’s Pump-N-Shop Girls’ Basketball Sweet 16 in Rupp Arena.
“We’re all very blessed to be in this position, and we just want to take it all in,” said senior guard Ariana McLoney, who lost her junior season to an ACL injury. She scored the last five points against Southwestern at the free-throw line on Saturday at Lincoln County High School to seal a 48-39 win and the 12th Region crown.
Fellow senior Isabella Lewis, the team’s second leading scorer, acknowledged Monday that she didn’t quite feel like her old self until last month. Even so, she’s played every game this season after suffering life-threatening injuries in a harrowing car accident last Jan. 4, which included a fractured pelvis and burst bursa sacs in both knees.
“It was a lot,” she said.
You’d never know it to see her now.
West Jessamine showed promise
Three years ago, West Jessamine’s now-four senior starters, McLoney and Lewis along with Katie Mastin and Kimberly Johnson, and its standout 6-foot junior forward, Claire Marshall, led the Colts to the team’s first wins in school history over 46th District rival and two-time state champion Mercer County. They later grabbed the program’s first-ever wins at the 12th Region Tournament.
Despite missing McLoney and Lewis last year, West Jessamine won its first 46th District crown.
West Jessamine began this preseason with McLoney and Lewis back on the court. Then, in their second scrimmage, Marshall suffered a hamstring injury that presented itself as knee pain, a particular concern for someone who’d had her own knee surgery a couple of years prior. Marshall missed the first 12 games of the season and had minutes-restrictions as she worked back into game shape.
After a 62-57 loss at home to Boyle County on Jan. 20, the Colts record stood at 11-10 with losses to their chief rivals and six teams in this week’s state tournament field — an 81-31 blowout dealt by George Rogers Clark, a 57-44 loss to Simon Kenton, a 67-51 loss to Assumption, a 66-43 loss to Frederick Douglass and a 61-51 loss to Notre Dame.
Through it all, Marshall, McLoney and Lewis said they never worried the opportunity for this special group to claim the school’s first girls basketball region title might be slipping away.
“I have so much confidence in this team,” Marshall said. “Even if we weren’t peaking in January, I knew that we would be fine by the time March comes.”
West Jessamine coach Matt Hilkens said his team’s expectations of success have never weighed down their pursuit of it.
“You knew there was the pressure of, ‘This is our last chance to really make this happen with this group.’” Hilkens said. “But we also played an extremely tough schedule. I mean, when you look at the teams that are represented in this Sweet 16 this year, we played a large chunk of them. So sitting at 11-10, and knowing who those 10 losses came to, we felt like we had done a good job of competing in those games and preparing ourselves for this moment.”
Mastin and Johnson and the rest of the Colts have persevered through the absence of their teammates on the court.
“I’m really happy that they’re back, especially because of the tough schedule that we’ve had,” Mastin said. “Having to battle all that without having all of them, it’s definitely been hard, but I think it’s made us better as a team.”
The Colts make it happen
So, when faced with a 26-22 halftime deficit to Southwestern in Saturday’s 12th Region championship game, West Jessamine showed the toughness and determination of a squad that has five 1,000 point scorers and more than a few scars.
“We all came together at halftime of that game, and we knew that it was going to take all of us to lock in and to really focus,” Marshall said. “And I think everybody came through.”
West Jessamine went on a 10-0 run to take the lead in the third quarter. It started with an offensive rebound and putback by Johnson. Mastin then finished a one-on-three fast break with a layup. Marshall followed moments later with another putback basket to tie it.
Lewis took her turn with back-to-back drives into the lane. The first netted a layup and foul and 30-28 lead. Although she missed that free-throw opportunity, she made the next two count when she got fouled on another drive, putting the Colts up 32-28 with 3:34 left in the third.
In all West Jessamine had five offensive rebounds leading to eight second-chance points during a key second half stretch.
Southwestern would tie it back up later, but the Warriors never retook the lead. McLoney’s free throws made sure of that.
“It goes back to that unselfishness of this group of seniors that I have,” Matt Hilkens said. “It doesn’t matter who scores, it doesn’t matter who’s the one taking the open shot. Just do your job and trust one another.”
So, there was never a doubt this season?
“No, not really,” McLoney said. “I believe in my teammates.”
“I was pretty confident that we would make it,” Lewis said.
“I knew this was our year,” Marshall said.
Regardless of what happens this week, that much is certain.
“It took a lot of grit, a lot of resilience for the girls to just battle back and be here,” Hilkens said. “So, we feel like we’re peaking at the right time.”
