‘She can really shoot it.’ Franklin-Simpson fires its way to state quarterfinals

Allye Pennington introduced herself to Rupp Arena the best way she knows how: from deep.

The Franklin-Simpson junior scored 28 points as the Wildcats pulled away for a 66-47 win over Bullitt East in the first round of the Clark’s Pump-N-Shop Girls’ Basketball Sweet 16.

Pennington, who transferred from East Robertson High School in Tennessee ahead of the 2025-26 season, was 6-of-9 from 3-point range. Most of her attempts came from well beyond the college 3-point line on Rupp Arena’s floor.

She was 8-for-10 from the free-throw line and also grabbed 10 rebounds.

“It’s been a while since I got 10, so I was more excited about that (than her shooting),” Pennington said.

Harrigan gets hot in the second half

Franklin-Simpson (25-7) led 24-23 at intermission after trailing in most of a first half that saw five lead changes and four ties; they led for only 2:55, and twice had stretches where they missed six consecutive shots.

They never relinquished the lead again. Tiffany Harrigan scored eight straight for Franklin-Simpson out of the break before a long 3-pointer from the wing by Pennington stopped her personal run. On the Wildcats’ next possession, Harrigan hit a jumper in the paint to put them in front by double digits for the first time.

Bullitt East’s Mollie Johnston responded with a pair of 3-pointers in succession to pull the Chargers (19-13) within 39-35, but that’s the closest they got. Franklin-Simpson closed the third on a 10-2 run, capped by another long trey from Pennington, and held Bullitt East to just a single field goal in the fourth quarter.

“In the second half we came out, settled down and were much more under control with what we were trying to get,” Wildcats coach Ashley Taylor said.

Harrigan, another Tennessee transplant who joined the Wildcats before the season, finished with 20 points but had just four in the first half. She was 9-for-14 from the floor with three assists.

To what did she attribute the surge?

“I had some fruit snacks during halftime, so I had some sugar in my system and I just trusted my game,” Harrigan said with a smile.

Johnston and Anna Tinelli each scored 16 points to lead the Chargers.

Pennington a sharpshooter

Pennington averaged 21.1 points per game this season to lead Franklin-Simpson, which returned to the Sweet 16 despite graduating seven seniors, including five of their top six scorers.

In Tennessee, Pennington played for a Class A school. She says the competition in Kentucky has been much stiffer.

“Winning a region’s a lot harder in Kentucky than it is in Tennessee,” Pennington said.

She scored 31 points in Franklin-Simpson’s overtime victory against Barren County in the 4th Region championship game; eighteen came in the fourth quarter and overtime.

“She can really shoot it,” Taylor said. “And what’s really crazy is not just standing out there and shooting. She’s coming off of ball screens, she’s deep in them. It’s a part of her game that she’s worked on so hard and her teammates do a great job of finding her.”

Pennington made 125 3-pointers and shot 46.1 percent from long range this season, both top marks in the state this season. The slight hitch in her shooting motion, and the distance from which she launches most of her shots, might make some coaches hesitate to give Pennington the green light.

But it’s worked to the tune of almost 2,000 career points for the possible 2027 Miss Basketball candidate.

“I started off really young, me and my dad worked every single day,” Pennington said. “I’d do 20 minutes of ball-handling each day. I started there and then worked up to my shot. I started shooting so far out when I was a little kid and I just never stopped from there.”

This story was originally published March 12, 2026 at 3:01 PM.